


Don't you dare forget the Sunshine Child

by hidekanede



Category: Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul:re
Genre: Alternate Universe - Civil War, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Magical Highschool Setting, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, Excessive Use of Blood, I love all of them why did I do this, M/M, Minor Character Death, Oh Jolly, Temporary Character Death, angel!hide, demon!Kaneki, excessive use of swear words, sorry - Freeform, they go to school and then things go downhill fast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-05-23 23:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6133591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidekanede/pseuds/hidekanede
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Kaneki just met his soulmate, found a few friends and is working on controlling the Demon inside him, all hell breaks loose. Quite literally, as the Demons declare war upon every other race and Kaneki, Hide and the rest are trapped in the intrigues of a civil war. As the dust of the battlefield slowly clears, a bigger scheme becomes clear...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Guard Dog](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/178678) by Maddylovesyou. 



Summary: AU in which Hide's a guardian – as in someone who died saving another person – and is thereby gifted with teleportation. Kaneki's a haemokineter – someone who uses blood to fight – as they stumble through their new school, a school of magic,murder and mystery!  
Kaneki-centered.  
Pairs: [Hide x Kaneki] as the main- and [Touka x Yoriko] as well as [Yomo x Uta] and [Tsukiyama x Banjou] as side-pairings.  
Warnings: [Graphic depictions of violence], [Swear words], [Mature content]  
P.S.: The school system used here is the same as in Germany from grades 1-10, which means: One has not “classes” but one fix “class”, where one is together with the same people at all times and in every subject. Way more relaxed and easier to write.

Grunting, Kaneki picked himself up from the floor. He dusted his jacket off and stared at the boy who ran into him. Except for them, the street was empty. “Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!” exclaimed said boy and set off to help Kaneki recollect his books, his blonde hair swaying through the hair behind him. “It's okay” the black-haired boy said and picked up his maths book. “I am Hide” the blonde said and reached out an arm as they finished picking up Kaneki's school stuff. “Kaneki” he said, warily noticing Hide didn't mention his full name and taking the hand to lift him off the ground. “So, Kaneki” Hide started yet again as Kaneki stood upright again, “how can I make up for running into you?” Smiling, Hide looked at him. Kaneki simply shook his head. “Ah, it's okay...really.” he stated. “How about I treat you to coffee?” asked the blonde in a mocking tone. “Wha-?” startled, Kaneki stumbled a few steps back. “You seem to like books, I know a great bookstore café, right around the corner” Did the guy ever stop smiling, Kaneki asked himself and then found himself nodding at Hide. “Great, then! When are you free?” the blonde asked and closed his eyes in a grin, his arms rested behind his head. “This evening” Kaneki replied and smiled back at the other.

“Now where were you heading, Kaneki?” asked the blonde. “Oh shoot! I'm going to be late for my first day at the new school!” Kaneki shouted out in anguish. “Where is your school?” Hide asked and side-glanced Kaneki. “That's a rather intimate question...” said Kaneki. No way he was going to reveal himself to someone he just met on the street. “Hey, I smell supernatural all over you, calm down” Hide whispered conspiratorially. Kaneki paled and felt his hair starting to lose color. “I'm going to get us to school like a bat out of hell.” he picked the boy whose hair was rapidly paling and started running towards the school. If anyone had seen them, they only would have seen a white lighting.

They arrived at school even before the other students and Hide simply ran up the facade of the school building. As they reached the flat roof, he let down the boy whose hair was now half white and half black. Then, after a few seconds, his hair was white except a few strands. “How are we supposed to get into the building now?” were the first words Kaneki directed at the other. “We could teleport back down?” Hide proposed but Kaneki shook his head. “One time is enough, I'm still nauseous...”

Kaneki reached into his pocket and took out a small switch-blade. “Whoa, 'Neki, calm down, no need to...” Hide started but was silenced by a hitch in his voice as Kaneki shook his head and slashed open his own arm without flinching. Hide opened and closed his mouth as Kaneki formed a narrow staircase. The black hair was now fully replaced by white. He smiled at Hide who looked at him mortified. “How can you do that?” Hide asked. “It's what I do...” Kaneki said, his voice now deep and mature. “And that staircase is ... safe?” Hide yelped as white-haired Kaneki grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the staircase. “It is as long as I stay alive and conscious.” he replied and dragged Hide downstairs. When they arrived at the bottom, a few students that have also come too early stood, shaking in their boots. Behind them, the staircase dissolved and let behind a giant puddle of blood. Kaneki looked pale as the anemia hit him and he needed to sit down.

“FORTISSIMO, way to make an entrance” they heard a male voice behind them. Hide and Kaneki turned around, seeing a slender and tall man before them. His hair was a dazzling purple. He looked down at the boys and took Kaneki's hand, sniffing it. “Dude, what the hell!” Kaneki snarled and slapped the man. Hide saw the black slowly washing into the white and was glad, “White Kaneki's” persona was a little strange to say the least. In a matter of seconds, the white was completely gone and “Black Kaneki” apologized to the man. “Now, how about we just forget about that and go inside?” the man asked, smiling suspiciously. He walked to the main entrance and pulled out a long and heavy key to open it. Kaneki was quick to remember the shape of the key, just in case he would come too early again and wanted to get in. “So, which class did you land in?” asked Hide and smiled at Kaneki. “Class 3-E” he said. “That is great! Same as me” Hide shouted. Kaneki simply smiled.

Their first subject would be Maths and Kaneki got his stuff ready, sat in the last desk, Hide slipping down next to him. “Why do we need to learn Maths, it's so unnecessary” he lamented before the teacher walked in. She straightened herself, standing behind her desk and eyeing the class. “A lot of new faces” she said, her voice shockingly similar to a dentist's drill. “Please, everyone set up your name tags” she said. Kaneki wrote the kanji of his name, Hide simply wrote hiragana “hi de”. Everyone else wrote their names in Roman letters.

“The two boys in the back, PLEASE, write your names in a language, not some weird gibberish!” the high-pitched voice rang through Hide's head as he grabbed his tag, wrote “hide” and set it back up. Kaneki looked at him helplessly, his words full of sorrow. “What is it, Kaneki?” Hide asked, speaking Japanese. “I can't write in romaji, help me!” Kaneki whispered and Hide choked back a laughter, took the other boy's tag and wrote the name. “Stop laughing!” Kaneki said, blushing fiercely.

“Since this is our first lesson, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want, as long as you stay in the room and don't use magic” she said, sitting behind her desk and rocking her chair back, her feet on the table. Kaneki and Hide got up from their chairs and walked to one of the windows, where they sat on the sill. They started talking about their powers, as did everyone else in the room, apparently it was a thing to ask to get to know one another.

“What can you do with your blood, 'Neki?” Hide asked and Kaneki blushed over the use of the nickname. “Well, it's kind of like...I can manipulate it into everything I know how to build...” he said. “So what can you ´build´?” shot Hide another question at him. “Not very much, only the staircase you saw, a katana and a handgun” he said. “Wait, a handgun? A pistol? You learned how to construct a working pistol from your blood?” Hide was amazed. “I need something explosive for the bullets though” Kaneki said quickly. Hide nodded and reached into his pockets. He took out a big firecracker. “Can you use that?” he asked. “Theoretically, but why?” Kaneki asked and anticipated something stupid. “So you can show me!” Kaneki was amazed at how good he knew Hide. Or more like the mask Hide wore, so much could Kaneki tell. “She said ´no powers´, Hide” Kaneki insisted. Hide looked at their teacher who tried to settle a fight between a Trickster and his victim, whose face was black from the smoke bomb the Trickster had used.

“Please” Hide used the doggy-eyes trick that always worked when he needed to get away from trouble and Kaneki sighed. “Just one, okay?” he said and stabbed himself in the hand, the wound letting out a droplet of blood before closing. With shut eyes, Kaneki formed a bullet from the droplet and filled in a bit of the gunpowder in the cracker. Then he let the bullet levitate in the air, sliced his arm and started constructing the gun's parts, there were a lot of parts. He managed to construct them all in twenty seconds, unknowing that everyone in the room had their eyes fixed on him as he moved his hands through the air, like conducting an orchestra. He formed the parts without touching the blood, still moving it. Then – when he had all of them – he started putting them together, like a puzzle. His eyes were still closed. He took the ammo clip out and inserted the single bullet. Only when it clicked back into place he opened his yes again. The locked and loaded gun levitated freely, revolving slowly. He noticed that everyone looked at him with wide eyes, noticed the teacher had left the room.

He looked at Hide who slowly started applauding, the other students joining him. Kaneki sat down, he hated being in the spotlight. “Can I touch it?” asked Hide and Kaneki nodded, sending it right into Hide's hands. Hide looked at it, it felt just like it was made from metal, but it was a vivid red. Hide pointed it at the blackboard where someone had scribbled a target. He shot, no sound leaving the gun as the bullet flew a perfect straight line. “Bull's eye!” Hide celebrated and Kaneki gently let the gun levitate towards the window where he dissolved it. A wave of anemia hit him and he groaned. “Hey, you okay?” Hide asked worryingly. “Yes, it's okay” Kaneki said, his white hair once again being replaced by black in a matter of seconds. “It's just – first the staircase, now the gun...even I sometimes have anemia, y'know?” Kaneki's speech was slurred slightly.

“What did I say about not using magic?” the voice of their teacher was high-pitched as before. “I am sure I said...wait why do I smell blood?” she asked, looking around the room. Her eyes fell on Kaneki. “Are you okay, you look horribly pale!” she said. “I'm fine, just need a few minutes” he said, his voice thin. “Well, the class is dismissed. Next time, we're actually going to learn something!” The students moaned and got out the room. Kaneki and Hide were the last ones to stay put.

“Can you stand?” Hide stretched out his arm. Kaneki gladly took it and got up. “One question, are you able to use your power to levitate yourself?” Hide chatted as they walked towards their next class – Powers training. “Yes, technically, I never thought about it though...” Kaneki smiled at him. “I will try that next!” he said. “I've only seen you use your teleportation, what else can you do?” he asked Hide. “Well, I can shoot back people's attacks at themselves, to an extent. But I'm actually not a fighter, right?” Hide said, “I mostly rely on running away” Hide's smile fell for just a moment and Kaneki was sure that was one of the moments where he saw the real Hide under the bubbly, obnoxious surface.

They sat down in the room, the teacher charging in right after them. He walked up front, his long black hair swaying after him. He jumped on the table and greeted everyone. He was covered in tattoos, even his neck was full and his face was pierced. His hair was shaved off on one side and his eyes had black sclerae and red irides. “I am Uta” he said, “I'll teach you to master your individual powers. That's why this” - he made an arm movement to show he meant the room - “is not a suitable location.” The teacher bent his fingers backwards and cracked them. “So we'll be going to the next campus gymnasium. Can anyone teleport?” he asked the class. Hide and a shy girl with brown bob-cut hair raised their hands. Uta pointed out the window to a gymnasium around three miles away, it was only visible because there was nothing in the line of view. “Over there, please” he said and Hide grabbed Kaneki's hand, everyone touching their neighbor, until every student was connected to a teleporter. Uta was last to touch Hide's shoulders. “To infinity and beyond!” someone shouted before the people flickered out the walls. One aspect of teleportation Hide couldn't live without.

When they were in front of the gym, Kaneki glanced at Hide. “Why didn't you tell me you could go through walls before I used almost half my blood?” he asked. “You didn't give me the time to say so...and you said you didn't want to flicker anymore!” Hide exculpated himself. Kaneki sighed and waited for Uta to open the door.

Everyone got into the big gym, seeing targets aligned on a wall and ropes hanging from the ceiling. Spare that, the room was empty. Everyone took a seat on the floor as Uta prompted them to. “You should first try to show me your power, I will then be able to mimic it and help you perfect it.” Uta said. “I will help everyone for three minutes, but you should all train the whole time, you know.” Before he even finished his sentence, a white-haired boy started shooting red strings at the targets while hanging on another string from the ceiling. The same strings were stitched into him everywhere. “Follow Suzuya's lead, everyone!” Uta sighed and shot a red string himself before going over to the white-haired. Hide and Kaneki went into a corner where Hide started teleporting himself from one corner to another. Kaneki thought of something that he could stand upon to lift himself off the ground. He sliced his arm and let a pen appear, scribbled on the floor and came up with an idea.

He would construct a shield that he could not only use to defend himself with but also to float upon. Therefore, it needed grip for his feet. He came up with a solution as he thought about a pot's handle. He started to form a flat, round disc. Then he thickened the middle of it and bent the edges inward. It was big enough to hide him completely if he crouched but also used only so big that he could easily construct his sword. Then he made the handles, or bindings. He thought about simple straps, but was sure they would rip if he flew too fast.

Time flew by as he thought of new solutions to every problem that showed up and he was startled when Uta appeared next to him, using Hide's magic. Kaneki looked up and saw Hide in the far right corner of the room. Then he saw him in the far left. As his eyes darted from one corner to the other, he was sure he saw two Hides at the same time. “He's a bright kid, right?” Uta said. “Now show me what you can do.” Kaneki looked at him and narrowed his eyes a little. “Can't you see? Blood control. Haemokinesis, idiot” then he slapped himself. He hated this persona. Uta only rose an eyebrow. Then he took Kaneki's switchblade which still laid on the floor, then stabbed himself in the right thigh. He didn't flinch at all, which surprised Kaneki. It hurt him a lot the first few times he stabbed himself. A gush of blood flooded out of the man's thigh. His face scrunched up in anticipation, but nothing happened. “Why can't I control it?” he asked loudly, snarling at Kaneki. “How did you learn to control it?!” he asked, screaming at him. “I didn't, I was born with it.” Kaneki tried to reason. “Halfbreed!” the man yelled and yanked back Kaneki's bangs which the boy used to shield his eyes. He revealed Kaneki's right eye, which was the same as his. “You are a half-demon!” the man yelled and slapped Kaneki across the face. Kaneki stumbled backwards, his hair starting to blacken again.

A flash appeared and the teacher was yanked back from the boy and into the far left corner of the room by Hide. Everyone in the room could hear the insane laugh their teacher let out. Next he realized there two lightnings chasing one another through the gym while everyone else sought shelter. Kaneki constructed his shield and levitated himself high up into the air. Hide and his teacher laid in different corners of the room, panting. Sighing, the teacher dismissed the class. Kaneki floated down and let the blood fall to the floor. As his hair blackened again, he walked over to pick up the unconscious Hide.  
As Kaneki carried Hide to the nursery of the school, he felt his field of vision slowly getting blurry at the edges. His mind stopped functioning like it should and he fell down to his knees. Hide, who was draped around his shoulders, fell next to him, facing in his direction. He only saw flashing purple hair and a loud exclamation, something like “MON DIEU” or like that.

As he opened his eyes, he first didn't know where he was. Then it struck him: He fell unconscious with Hide on his back. “Très bien, you woke up!” he heard a male voice next to him. He apparently laid on a bed, and judging from the bulge in the mattress right to him, he did not lay on it alone. He rapidly turned around and felt instantly groggy. “You looked like you lost an awful amount of blood, though I could not find any wounds, mon ami” the voice said again and Kaneki tried to sit upright. The voice came from his left. So, the carrier of the voice was not on this bed. “Aren't you willing to talk a bit? I did save you out there, Uta was furieux!” Kaneki managed to sit straight, looked his self-proclaimed savior in the eye and easily recognized the man as the one who sniffed his hand that morning, which was pretty hard to forget.

“Anyway, my name is Tsukiyama Shuu, what's is your name?” asked the man with a french accent. “I am Kaneki” answered the other, looking at the weight that pushed his bed down and was relieved to see a mess of blonde hair. “Kaneki...only Kaneki or is the more?” the man asked. Kaneki blinked at him, slowly before avoiding the question carefully. “I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I think Hide and I should leave again. How long were we gone?” he asked. Tsukiyama sighed. “Mon dieu, you sure are a handful. You were only unconscious for fifteen minutes or so, surprisingly.” he added. “Does that mean I could manage to get to the next lesson in time?” Tsukiyama shrugged his shoulders. “I can ensure that.” he said. “Where are we, actually?” Kaneki asked and looked around. He was sure the school wouldn't have such nice furniture. “At my home, mon ami” answered Tsukiyama, “But behind that door is the school” he added mysteriously.

Hide finally stirred awake too. “Hey 'Neki, why are you lying next to me? And who is...oh, the hand-sniffing-guy.” Hide's eyes narrowed somewhat. The purple-haired went two steps backwards. The boys got up, Hide still a bit shaky on his feet. Kaneki's regeneration had been amplified by the sleep he was put in. “So, how abut we get going?” proposed Hide. Kaneki nodded and they thanked Tsukiyama, who put a hand over his eyes dramatically and then waved it off. “Who is your teacher for the next lesson?” he asked then. “We don't know yet, but the class is French.” answered Hide. “That is très bien! In that case, I am your teacher!” answered (obviously) the grown-up.

“How are we going to get to our classroom?” asked Kaneki and looked at the man expectantly. “We go through a door” was the answer and Tsukiyama opened the door to the bedroom and it opened to show a classroom fully out of control.

Omake:

Touka sat down slowly, Yoriko chatting cheerily to a boy next to her. The boy obviously tried to flirt with her and stared at Yoriko's breasts the whole time. Of course, he tried to conceal his staring, but Touka still saw it. As Yoriko waved him Good Bye and he walked off to his friends, Touka glared a dagger at him. Well, a dagger doesn't quite cut the chase. It was more like a claymore. Touka had decided on a decent meal for that night and shot an evil smirk at the boy who probably never before had experienced the thrilling aspects of stabbed through the heart by a smirk. Touka turned away from him and towards her neighbor. She thanked...well, someone, that Yoriko sat next to her. She wouldn't even have to talk to her, Yoriko talked enough for them both and still managed to not only not annoy Touka but also to actually make her smile.

Omake end.

As the teacher and the two boys walked into the room and saw what was going on, they ad three different reactions. Tsukiyama sighed, slammed the door shut and silenced everyone. Kaneki hurried to sit down in the way-way-back and Hide looked like he was getting ready to join the poker party near the window.

The class was instantly muted by the bang of the door and Hide sat down next to Kaneki. The teacher introduced himself and Kaneki noted which materials he would have to buy before being poked from the side. “Hey, 'Neki” said Hide and Kaneki turned his head. “Yes?” he asked and was glad for the slight anemia he was still experiencing. Superb regeneration or not, he lost almost four liters of blood that morning. “Just wanted to say...you have the worst bedhead I've ever seen in my life” Hide chuckled loudly enough to make their teacher glare a knitting needle at them which made Hide burst out laughing. “Hide, your hair is even worse” Kaneki said after Hide playfully dodged the next glare. “What, really? What does this dude do to his bed, electrocute it?” Kaneki smiled and looked up front where the teacher was noting the dates for the class exams on the black board, he hurried to note them down. Tsukiyama ended the lesson five minutes early and they went outside. “Well, we have a break every two lessons for twenty minutes(*). Where should we go?” asked Hide and crossed his arms behind his head. “I don't know, but we should check where we can fetch food”, Kaneki said, “and coffee”

Hide smiled before they went to look for a kiosk. When they finally found it, the break was almost over. Kaneki bought a coffee. “Hide, help me, I can't read this” he whispered in Japanese at the blonde. “There are pretzels, sandwiches and wow, they even have onigiri!” Hide cheered. Kaneki bought a pack of four of the rice balls and reached one to Hide, who was practically morphing into a dog. They arrived just on time for the lesson to start.

As it turned out, they wouldn't have needed to come punctually, as their teacher came ten minutes late, stated his name – Yomo – and then didn't speak anymore. He just wrote on the blackboard when the class would take their exams, what they had to buy and that they should do literally anything as long as it didn't involve him and took place in the classroom. That class was over quickly, as Kaneki and Hide spent the time chatting and watching two of their classmates fight. One was the white-haired kid, Suzuya, the other had brown hair and a frown on his face. The brunette didn't fight very well, Suzuya was just playing around with him before letting him trip over a red string he laid out as a tripwire and holding a knife to his neck. Sighing, Kaneki looked away.

“Ah, only one more hour, right?” Hide said as they left the room, flashing Kaneki a grin that stole the sun's light for a moment. Kaneki found himself get distracted by the smile and muttered “Yeah, sure” before darting his eyes away. The boys walked to their next classroom and sat down in the back. The teacher came in right as the bell rang and sat down behind the teacher's desk. His white hair looked out of place regarding his obvious youthfulness. “My name is Arima. I will teach English.” His voice was calming, but one could hear the obvious sleep deprivation behind it, it was kind of tiring. Arima's half-lidded eyes fell on Kaneki and he felt a shiver going through him. Those eyes were those of a man who knew of his authority and who was deadly in a fight. They moved on and Kaneki saw Hide's face contorted in a frown. “You will need a textbook and a dictionary, as well as a notebook. For today, we will look at the dates for the exams this year and the first chapter of the textbook.” he let a few copies pass through the room.

Nobody dared to whisper, let alone speak under the gaze of the bloodshot eyes. Kaneki looked at the worksheet and understood exactly nothing. He wrote a small note and passed it to Hide while the teacher was facing the other direction. The kanji for help was written on it. Hide read it and suppressed a chuckle before taking Kaneki's worksheet and finished it while also filling out his own. He needed only ten minutes, his hand moving near sonic speed. He passed the sheet to Kaneki and wrote “You seriously need to learn roman letters” on the backside.

Ten minutes later, everyone had finished the sheet and Arima gave everyone the solutions. Hide had made only few mistakes. The class had ten minutes left and Arima dismissed the students after telling them where to buy the textbook.

“So, are you coming with me?” asked Hide and looked back at Kaneki who was half a step behind him. “Where?” asked Kaneki before remembering. “The bookstore café?” Hide chuckled and Kaneki found himself willing to kill a person to hear that chuckle again. “Yes, right, I...” Kaneki stuttered. Hide shook his head playfully and folded his arms behind his head.

“What can I get you two?” asked a girl with long purple hair. “Your phone number” Hide flirted playfully and Kaneki felt as if he was stabbed through the heart with an icicle before shaking off the feeling and leaned backwards uncomfortably. The purple-haired shot Hide a glance that could freeze hell over, but apparently not the sun as Hide's wide grin remained in place perfectly. Kaneki coughed slightly. “A mocca” Hide said then and looked at Kaneki. “A coffee, black, please” ordered the brunette and the girl nodded.

“What was that all about?” asked Hide and smiled and Kaneki. “What?” asked the black-haired unsettled. “You all tensing up when I flirted with her, if I didn't know better I'd say you're hitting on me” the blond rambled on, “I mean, I couldn't blame you, I am so hot I could crush on myself.” Hide chuckled and Kaneki motioned to stand up, feeling uncomfortable. Hide grabbed his arm. “Hey, stay here, I was just joking, right?” Hide looked at him remorsefully. Kaneki sighed. “Just, please...don't do that again” he muttered and Hide nodded.

When the girl came back, Hide only thanked her and held his eyes fixed on Kaneki who nodded his thanks at her. The two sipped their coffees in silence for a while before Hide once again grabbed Kaneki's hand. “Hey, 'Neki” he said. “Yes?” replied the black-haired and looked over the rim of his cup. “I am kind of new in this city and I don't yet have any friends” the blonde started, not letting go of Kaneki's wrist, “So I wanted to ask if you wanted to be my first friend” he said with an illuminating eye-smile.

Without even a moment of hesitation, Kaneki wiggled out of Hide's hold and instead interlaced their fingers, smiling. “Of course, I'd love to” he said. Hide chuckled and freed his hand. “Jeez, boys, step down the gay” chuckled the purple-haired girl next to them. “Oh shit, she CAN display emotions” Hide said cheerfully and slowly freed his hand. As the cold hair hit Kaneki's hand, he realized just how intimate the gesture had been. He looked out of the window in a vain attempt to hide the crimson blush prospering on his face.

“It's gotten dark outside” said Hide, whose gaze had followed Kaneki's. “Yes, I somehow have to get home at the other side of town...” Kaneki shuddered. He hated dark alleys and he'd have to pass a few on his way home. “I hope this doesn't sound awkward now, but you could crash at my apartment” Hide proposed, touching his chin nervously, and Kaneki's cheeks were involuntarily tinted crimson yet again. “That would be great” muttered Kaneki. Hide cheered and they paid, leaving the café. Hide waved his good-byes at the purple-haired girl.

“It's only a few minutes from here” said Hide, which turned out to be true. Hide opened the door and said “I am back loudly” before pulling Kaneki inside. “Hide's back!” said a feeble voice and a petite girl with long brown braids jumped up and hugged the boy. “Hey, hey, Hinami, I was only gone for like eleven hours” Hide said, smile spreading across his features, a genuine one. “Thirteen hours and eight minutes” said Hinami tauntingly. Hide ruffled her hair. “Who is that boy?” asked Hinami, admonishment completely wiped off her face. “I am Kaneki” started Kaneki. “He is my first friend here in town!” Hide grinned widely.

A towering, brown-haired man came out of one of the rooms. “Hide, you're back” he said, smiling slightly. “And you are his friend?” the man asked. Kaneki nodded. The brunette came up to him and looked down at the boy. Kaneki noticed his beard looked like an upside-down “no”-hiragana. “In that case, welcome to the family. I am Banjou, Kazuichi Banjou and I kind of run this house-hold when Hide and little Hinami are in school” the man started talking. “And now you met the whole family” said Hide, putting his arm around Kaneki's shoulders. “And also – Kazuichi, we are hungry!” Banjou grumbled and motioned for them to follow him into a kitchen.

“So, Kaneki, doesn't sound too American. You from Japan?” Kaneki found himself flinching at the accent Banjou fashioned, it sounded much like his aunt's. “Yes, I am. Tokyo, to be exact” Kaneki nodded, feeling uneasy. “In that case, there's no need for the macho role” said Banjou, accent-free Japanese. “You said your name was Kaneki, as in 'the-boy-who-went-missing-a-year-ago-after-the-mad-doctor-butchered-his-family'-Kaneki?” Kaneki flinched, but slowly found himself nodding.(**)

They talked hushed for quite a while and Kaneki started to take a liking in the man. Banjou was a man who was fairly easy to like, though. As were Hinami and Hide and Kaneki already found himself dreading over the question Banjou and Hide have half-jokingly-half-seriously asked him: If he wanted to move in with them.

“Boys, it's already 1 am! Geez, you have to wake up at 7 am, school's at 7:30!” Kaneki and Hide nodded smiling and moved out of the kitchen. Then it struck Kaneki like a lighting: “Hide, where am I going to sleep?” he whispered. Hide was barely able to suppress the loud laugh threatening to escape his mouth. It came out as a slight chuckle, making Kaneki's heart skip a beat. “Well, I do have a couch in my bedroom” Hide answered. Kaneki nodded, his heart sinking without him knowing why.

They laid down, Hide on the bed and Kaneki on the sofa, and Hide put out the lights. He clapped his hands twice and the illumination faded. “Goodnight, 'Neki” Hide said with a voice softer than a puppy dog's baby-fur. Kaneki felt a smile creep onto his face. “Goodnight, Hide” he replied and his voice unwittingly soaked in emotion, he couldn't make out which though. “It's Nagachika Hideyoshi” Hide said in a shushed tone and Kaneki felt his heart melt. It meant Hide trusted him, had found reason to like him enough to tell him his full name. In supernatural world, another person knowing your full name was them having power over you.

A quick explanation: If one called a person by their real name, one could summon and control them. This only worked trice in a lifetime.

“Kaneki Ken” Kaneki replied within seconds. “Still gonna call you 'Neki” Hide said and the smile could be heard within his voice. Shortly after, Kaneki could hear Hide was in the realm of dreams. He recapped the day and got stuck at the point where Uta figured out he was a half-demon. It was true, but still he tried to conceal it, knowing people didn't like demons at all. He couldn't blame them though, story had it demons were bloodthirsty, evil-minded creatures straight from hell. Well, hell was one way to put it, demons liked to refer to their home as “The Darkness' Realm” and their leader as “The Darkness”.

But now he had been revealed to the whole class. And Hide still stuck to him, even allowed him to crash on his couch. Kaneki sighed through his nose and then turned onto his side. He was never one to sleep soundly, he was after all half a demon who were nocturnal, sometimes even insomniac, creatures. So he sat on his sofa, deciding he wouldn't be able to sleep for that night. Great thing he had brought his book, the Hanged Man's McGuffin. At his apartment, he would switch the light on, but as he was sleeping over, he couldn't.

He sighed and searched for anything to illuminate the book. Relieved, he found a small stash of Glowstone Powder, which he scattered on his palm. It started glowing mildly and Kaneki held it closer to the book. He started reading.

He wasn't even on page thirty, as he found his thoughts drifting off the book's subject and towards his new-found friend. He shook his head and focused on the book again.

Another ten pages later, he caught himself wondering how Hide's hair would feel if he tangled it around his fingers. Again, he shook the thoughts off, knowing exactly well where they were heading.

And before he even read the next paragraph, he snarled as the thought of how Hide's lips would feel on his, how his skin would feel under his hands, how his body would feel pressed against his firmly.

He stood up and noticed he was definitely aroused by the thoughts. His demon side urged him to walk over and slam the blonde's body into the bed, make him moan and clutch at the sheets. He was, however, in his human form and the thoughts were pressed to the way-way-back of his brain. That wouldn't solve his problem at hand though(**).

He walked out the room and into the kitchen, careful not to wake anyone up. He couldn't stay in the same room as Hide, hearing the boy's soft breaths and occasional trashing around in the bed. He sat in his boxers (for lack of pajamas) in the kitchen of a boy he met only the previous day (as it was almost 2 am) while avoiding to fantasize about said boy in a very inappropriate way. He closed his eyes and slid down the wall, sitting on the bench now.

“Hard time sleeping?” he flinched at the hushed voice next to him and almost slapped the grinning blond in the face before relaxing and smiling. "Yeah, half-demon stuff" he replied and Hide smiled. "You can sleep in my bed, if that helps you” Hide proposed. Kaneki flushed red and shook his head fast, but Hide was having none of that and proceeded in carrying the black-haired into his room, dumping him on his bed and tucking him in. Kaneki smiled and inhaled the strawberry scent Hide carried around. “Sleep tight” the blond said and snitched half the blanket. “And I hope you're not a cushions-hogger” the grin reached Kaneki and he turned away from his friend. Backs pressed firmly against the other one's, they fell asleep soon after.


	2. Chapter 2

So, chapter two of the adorable dork and the other adorable dork bullshitting their way through school. Oh and you should definitely have the notes open on another tab while reading this.

Kaneki yelped as the alarm went off, waking the blond clinging to him with a start. Hide was actually glued to him and thus had slapped Kaneki across the face when waking up. “Ouch, that actually hurt” Kaneki whimpered, freeing himself from Hide's hand, which was draped across his hip. Or rather, he tried to free himself but Hide held him soundly, no way to escape the hold at all. “Hide” Kaneki said, wiggling about a little, purposelessly making Hide's hand slip lower, now resting on his right thigh. Kaneki felt Hide's soft smile against his back and gulped. Hide decided to snuggle even closer and draped his left arm under his friend's body, bent his arm so it was flat across his chest. “Hide!” Kaneki insisted, trying to push the other off. “Stop moving, Hell's sake” Hide mumbled, half-asleep, “you're freaking gorgeous”

“Brother, wake up! You can cuddle with Kaneki after school, but WE'VE RUN OUT OF BACONANDBANJOUDOESN'TWANTTOGOTOTHESTORE please?” Hinami's feeble voice rose to a yelp as she tried to suppress the tears threatening to break everyone’s heart. “Hinami, it's Bacon not some supernaturally delicious from The Realm, calm it.” Kaneki flinched hardly at the mentioning of The Realm, it could either mean his kin's home or the angel's. “Brooooother” Hinami insisted, turning on her puppy eyes. Hard to tell whose were better, but Kaneki would go with Hide's.

Five minutes, Hide was fully dressed and ready to flash-step his way to the bakery, readying himself to run through the wall, only to be held back by Banjou. “You are not telefragging our wall AGAIN, little boy” the huge man said and Hide pouted. “That was once!” he insisted and Kaneki raised an eyebrow. “Telefragging is when I run through matter, accelerating it to my speed, which disintegrates it. It happened once and Banjou refuses to let me walk through walls now.” Hide had his serious face on, “But I don't want to use the door.” he finished his small speech. Kaneki was far too under-caffeinated to put up with a pouting Hide and opened a door. “You know, you can walk down walls, right?” Kaneki sighed.

Banjou and Hinami raised an eyebrow, looking so shocked at the simple solution, Hide wiggled out of Banjou's grip and flashed out through the window. A car siren went off two blocks further. Kaneki sighed and stood awkwardly in the door leading into the kitchen. “Come on in, I need to ask my future son-in-law a few questions. Coffee?” Kaneki must have lost all his face's color, which wasn't too much to begin with. He managed to choke out a “Yes, please” and sat down on the bench. “So, it wasn't that far-fetched, eh? You already starting to hit on my boy? Hinami walked in on you two cuddling, she says, what exactly happened tonight?” Banjou asked curiously.

“Nothing happened” the voice of an obviously amused Hide chimed through the room. “H-he's right, nothing happened.” Kaneki blush was not only on his face but it reached down to his collarbone. “We have one hour before school starts, I made bacon on my way here and only lost like half of it, we got to get 'Neki here changed and” Hide started, was interrupted by Banjou's snicker. “What is it, old man?” Hide narrowed his eyebrows. “At the nickname stage already, eh?” And Kaneki almost spat out his coffee. Hide shook his head. “Kaneki, we're grabbing your stuff now. Breakfast's skipped today.” Hide grabbed Kaneki under his arms and jumped out the window.

In a – literal – flash, they stood on the street. “Say, 'Neki, where do you even live?” asked Hide. “22nd/45th” Kaneki answered and Hide nodded. Kaneki blinked his eyes and stood in front of his apartment complex. He suppressed the urge to vomit. Flash-stepping really was hard on his stomach. And it gave him a slight headache too. He opened the door and walked up to his first-floor apartment, fetching his clothes in his bedroom and proceeding to change as Hide barged in and closed the door behind him.

Kaneki realized two things just now.

First, he didn't wear anything on his upper body and Hide must have thiught he was showing off his muscles.

Second, Hide was eyeballing him blatantly.

Kaneki turned away with a yelp. Hide flash-stepped behind him, air wooshing where he stood. He let his warm fingers trace Kaneki's back muscles. “Hide, stop that” Kaneki said, but it was already too late. “Where'd you get that?” asked Hide, his fingers tracing the long and ugly scar that desecrated the pure and soft, albeit cold skin. “Long story” said Kaneki and Hide felt he shouldn't ask about it. It probably had something to do with the year long absence of his friend.

Hide scratched his head awkwardly and murmured “Get dressed, we got to bring Hinami to school” or something along those lines. Kaneki shook his head slightly and yanked a black long-sleeve and a pair of black jeans. He realized how he must have looked like a perfect counterpart to Hide's colorful fashion style.

Kaneki went to brush his teeth, comb his hair and decided he would shower in the evening. Hide popped his head into the bathroom. “You okay? Let's grab Hinami” he snatched Kaneki's hand, flashing both of them out the room, disintegrating a window in the process. They ran through the opened window and landed in the kitchen they had taken off in. Hinami and Banjou still sat there, Banjou sipping his coffee from a cereal bowl and Hinami enjoying her bacon. “Boys, you're back. Hinami, get ready.” Banjou dad-ordered her.

“I got to go brush my teeth, see you guys.” Hide excused himself with a grin and vanished with a soft wooshing sound. Banjou and Kaneki stood alone in the kitchen. “So, you really crushing on my baby boy” the man said, making it sound like rather a fact than a question. Nevertheless, Kaneki was quick to deny, shaking his head and averting his gaze to the floor. “Hey, that is okay. Half the girls at our old school had the hots for him but, eh, Hide is not one...to prefer the company of women” the man wiggled his eyebrows and Kaneki blushed.

As Hinami and Hide entered the room, Kaneki was a mess on the bench and Hide was thoroughly confused at the sight. Banjou waved at them and before Kaneki could protest, they flashed out the window, standing in front of the elementary school Hinami visited. “Does Father pick me up again?” Hide nodded and she smiled, waving at her best friend and ditching the boys. Kaneki lent against the wall of the building, bile in his throat. “We gotta go to school, 'Neki” Hide insisted. “Just...a breather.” Kaneki panted. Teleportation was not going easy on him.

They teleported right in front of the school, arriving with most of the other students. The school building was already open, they moved inside. In the first class, English with Arima, it suddenly struck Kaneki. Arima was a Reaper. In The Realm of The Darkness, there were four ranks, the higher ones controlling and commanding the lower ones, because that how ranks work, in military and The Realm. On the top, there was Satan, unsurprisingly. He was insanely strong, the only other entity that could rival his strength was his brother, God. Those names were the ones the humans gave them. Actually, supernatural society sticked with The Darkness and The Light.

Under the direct command of The Darkness and the only ones who were allowed to condemn Souls (people who died and are not especially assigned to one Realm by their way of living) to The Darkness's realm were the Reapers. Reapers' strenght could only be matched by Archangels, they often clashed for Souls.

Under the Reapers, there were normal demons. Demons were so low, they didn't even get a capital D. They were still extremely strong, a normal supernatural user (*) would have problems fighting one. But a trained user could even kill one without being an angel (who also didn't deserve the capital A).

Users who were neither demons nor angels but somehow connected to them were called either guardians or half-demons. Guardians were pure souls who once died saving another person and then taken in by an Archangel. A half-demon, unsurprisingly, was someone who was half-something and half-demon, most were half-human though. Half-demons only had one demon eye and couldn't use normal demon's powers. A demon's powers were flight and hypnosis, paired with excelling use of one or two weapons, an angels were pretty much the same.

To make up for not having demon's/angel's powers, guardians and half-demons had individual powers, such as teleportation or haemokinesis.

Arima being a Reaper was pretty serious. Kaneki noted down his observation and passed the note on to Hide. He kept his eyes fixed on Arima's attaché case, which probably contained his weapon of choice. He saw Hide frowning deeply, eve freezing up and slightly touched his friend's arm. Hide unfreezed fast and set up his usual cheery attitude again.

“Are you really okay, Hide?” Kaneki asked after class, because everyone was too terrified of Arima's dark aura to even as much as whisper. Hide just nodded and turned around, his tense shoulders calling out his lie. Kaneki shook his head. “No you're not. Come on, relax, your back and shoulders wont let you sleep tonight, you know?” Kaneki said. Hide smiled at him. “Yeah Mom...”. Hide grimaced and Kaneki let himself relax a little at the sight of Hide's shoulders dropping.

The rest of their day was among the lines of Hide joking around, Kaneki trying not to sigh at Hide's bad jokes as that would've made him upset and Kaneki didn't want his friend upset. Nearing the end of the last lesson, his thoughts started drifting off the subject of school and they moved towards the bleached blonde next to him. His eyes moved over Hide unconsciously, Hide didn't even know, he was laughing with his eyes closed at a joke some classmate just cracked.

Kaneki noticed how Hide's firm back muscles contracted while his shoulders were shaking in laughter. Hide calmed down soon and Kaneki averted his gaze. He looked at his feet, suppressing the blush. He had just been checking his friend out, his friend he just met the day before. He knew about demon's mating preferences, they usually were monogamous, coincidentally, so were angels and lower class angels. But not only did they always stay with one partner, they also knew if one individual was their s/o in the means after three days at the utmost. Angels were a tad slower, they needed approximately a fortnight (**).

Kaneki knew all that and still he tried to refuse to acknowledge that the demon in him wanted Hide as a mate. He didn't even know what creature Hide was. Well, there were users, angels, demons, ghouls, spirits, chthonic hellhounds or sacred domini canes (***) as well as were-animals. Though seldom, Kaneki knew there were three werewolves and one werecat at their school. Hellhounds and domini canes were only measly dogs in the human world, black or white.

But Kaneki couldn't smell the animal scent of were-creatures on his friend. So the only creatures left were ghouls, users and angels. If he was a spirit, Kaneki's demon senses would've kicked in. He never'd heard about ghouls that could use teleportation, though. Maybe he should just ask him. Kaneki whipped his head to the side and his eyes wandered over Hide's blonde hair. He just wanted to tap his friend's shoulders to get the boy's attention.

“So, pack your stuff, get on going!” their teacher dismissed them, their voice like abrasive paper. Ui was their name and they insisted people used they/them pronouns. Hide grabbed Kaneki at his shoulders. “So, you going to eat lunch with me and cutie-pies Juuzou and Chie here?” Hide asked and pulled him up. “As if you'd get the right to vote about that. Come on, they are told to have great tiramisu!” Hide jumped onto the table and crouched down so he was on eye-level with the now standing Kaneki.

They all stood in queue. Hide just rambled on and on about how good the cake was going to be, Juuzou chiming in and they soon they linked arms and swayed to and from, tintinnabulating to their newly-invented “Tiramisu song”. Kaneki's wondered if they could see the inside of his skull. Chie looked up at him and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “They sure are troublesome, right?” she asked, a smile on her lips. She grabbed her camera, held it in front of her and shot two photos, looking at them on the display, tilting the camera lightly and taking another picture.

When they finally got their food, Kaneki just grabbed a hamburger and a tiramisu. Hide chose to take french fries. French fries and five tiramisus. Chie didn't take anything, Juuzou everything that looked like it contained more sugar than water. “Your dentist must love you” said Hide and snatched a caramel and chewed on it. Kaneki noticed Juuzou's eyebrows narrowing ever so slightly.

They sat down in the way-way-back of the caféteria. Kaneki sipped his coffee and quickly finished his food fast. When he was halfway through his hamburger, Hide had already finished his meal. He doggy-eyed Kaneki. Sighing, the raven-haired boy passed Hide his only tiramisu. Hide smiled and dug into it. He smiled so brightly at Kaneki when he was finished, Kaneki imagined ruffling through his hair like with a juvenile. Before he realized he did, his hand was already in Hide's hair. The strands were soft, like silk. Kaneki quickly retreated his hand. Hide and Juuzou just looked at him.

The classes in the evening were about to start as Kaneki felt a warm hand ruffling through his hair. He and Hide were in front of the coke vending machine, Juuzou and Chie had already left to sit in front of their next classroom with their other classmates. Hide slowly and carefully raked his fingers through Kaneki's hair. “Your hair is smooth as satin, you know? How much conditioner do you even use?” Hide's mouth was right next to Kaneki's ear. Kaneki could smell Hide's scent, it reminded him of strawberries. The breath tickled his ear shell and he shuddered ever so slightly.

Hide pulled his hand back and Kaneki turned around. Hide's hand lingered on his cheek and the blush had spread across his whole body. Hide smiled at him brightly, before pulling his hand away. Kaneki snapped back into reality. He turned around swiftly, grabbing his coke and almost taking off running. “Hey, Kaneki. I just said that your hair is great. And it really is. Nothing to get so flustered about.” Hide said, voice firm and soft. Kaneki nodded and they walked off.

Kaneki then realized he had really found his soulmate. And Hide, too, felt himself becoming more and more bonded with the raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*) users are simply humans who can use powers, such as magic, OOBE, teleportation, flight, whatever  
> (**) a fortnight is half a month or two weeks, for you Americans.  
> (***) chtonic is the adjective for everything concerning the underworld. Hellhounds are The Darkness's Realm's guardians. Domini canes is Latin for “God's dogs”, they are The Light's Realm's guard dogs.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another word on how Demon's relationships work. Demons can be Soulmates with any humanoid creature. They end up bonded really fast (which is crucial for this story because I'm a lazy fvck). If a half-demon does find their soulmate, they will give their everything to make the other fall for them. That process is called courting, but it is rather seducing. Once a relationship with the soulamte is established, a demon will never lose interest in the other.
> 
> Angels, non-coincidentally, work exactly the same.

“So, you coming over to my place, hang out again?” asked Hide after school. Kaneki nodded without giving it another thought, he was happy with being around the other male. “Y'know, the gang at home absolutely loves you, especially Hinami” Hide rumbled on, walking with his arms crossed behind his head. “What makes you so sure?” asked Kaneki, half a step behind Hide. Hide smiled at him, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Trust me on this one” he whispered conspiratorially.

They slowly walked up the stairs to the apartment Hide and “The Funky Bunch” (Quote Hide) lived. Kaneki had admitted Hide's flashing made his stomach upset and Hide instantly apologized. “Yo, 'Neki, you think I should buy a Playstation?” Hide asked, smirking. Kaneki was dumbfounded. “What is a...Playstation?” he asked with mirth in his tone. Hide deadpanned. “How can you not know that? You been living under a stone?!” Hide's smile wavered for the fraction of a second. “Ah never mind. I'm just gonna buy one.”

When they entered, nobody except them was there. “Where are Hinami and Banjou?” asked Kaneki. Hide shrugged his shoulders. “Probably somewhere out, grocery shopping. Hungry?” he answered. Kaneki's stomach growled loudly before he could politely decline the offer. “Say, missing one breakfast takes that toll on you?” chuckled Hide. “It's not like someone ate half my lunch, right?” Kaneki retorted. “Touché” Hide acknowledged defeat.

“So, we only have ice cream here. Ice cream and..uhm...ice cream here. Seriously. Banjou needs to step down his ice cream game.” snicker, “Know, I'm gonna buy that Playstation now. You comin'?” Hide was already half out the window. “Hey, wait up!” Kaneki yelped and half-ran towards the window. Hide grabbed his hand and launched them down the wall.

As they arrived in front of a Target, came to an abrupt halt and disturbed a lot of people by appearing in their field of vision out of the blue, Kaneki felt really sick. Like, his stomach was hanging on his figurative knees. “Hey, buddy, you don't look to fine. Need some help?” Hide helped him up slowly. “Welp, we really gotta work on that. Now, let's go. I'm in the right mood t go buy something I can't afford, playing a video game with my best friend and eat some ice cream.”

Hide dragged the still sick Kaneki into the store, approached a shop assistant and then dragged Kaneki through half the store. “So, 'Neki, Generation III or IV?” Hide was unsure. “I mean, IV has better graphics. III has more games.”

“How about you don't buy a Playstation, rather than an xBox?” a nice, smiling girl with long green hair swirling in the wind made Hide flinch. She had just suddenly appeared next to him, radiating power and iniquity. And she had a cold aura around her, feeling like dying. Hide knew exactly how dying felt, it was not pleasant. Short, being around her felt like being around Arima. “Reaper” Hide and Kaneki whispered at the same time.

The green-haired girl laughed. To normal people, it would have sounded goodhearted, but every User or creature flinched unintentionally, the malice seeping into their hearts. “It's been a long time since people called me that. I am Eto.” she said, voice sending down shivers their spine. “I would highly recommend you an xBox. And...you never met me.” she finished and skipped away.

“Two Reapers in one territory?” Kaneki wondered loudly. Hide nodded slowly. Kaneki side-glanced his friend. He once again realized that the loud, hyper attitude was only a façade. Hide's face was now completely serious and Kaneki could almost literally see the gears turn in his head. “Maybe they have some meeting here. But why here, you have any clue?” Hide asked, turning his head to Kaneki.

“My guess is as good as yours...” Kaneki shrugged. Hide grabbed an xBox. “So, we only need some games now. Do you like video games?” Kaneki was clueless. “You never play any? Wait, how do you even survive?” Hide's eyebrows furrowed only a little. “On...Books, I guess? Music...” Kaneki blushed fiercely. “I always wanted to play games but I never could afford any...and that makes me wonder, where did you have the money to buy an xBox?” Kaneki asked, desperate to change the topic. “Nice try at changing the subject, 'Neki” Kaneki's shoulders slumped down a little “But actually, I had a job. Was a florist, you see!” Hide beamed at the other. Kaneki only then realized that he was one, two inches taller than Hide. It felt like a small child smiling at you.

“So, you want to play...Smash or Tekken?” Hide looked up at the raven-haired. “What?” Kaneki was at a loss. “We'll start with Smash, easier.” Hide pushed the disc in. “And while that loads, Imma grab the ice cream.” Hide stood up and scooted across the room into the kitchen. “Well, I don't really want any...still sick from all the teleporting and stuff” Kaneki's stomach was really upset. “Kaneki” Hide said, his voice stern, “I got half a gallon of ice cream and if you don't grab a spoon right now, you'll be at fault alone for my stomach ache tomorrow!” Hide yelped.

In the end, it seemed Kaneki did have a talent for Smash. He was helpless at any other game though. Tekken was too aggressive for him, Call of Duty was too loud and Halo just didn't feel right. But his real talent showed when they started playing Portal. Kaneki just solved the puzzles, one after another. “What have I done to deserve such a great friend” Hide sighed. His hand had reached out and ghosted along Kaneki's jawline. Kaneki shuddered slightly. “Hide!” Kaneki blushed and turned his head away.

“You know, you have just solved the third puzzle straight in the first try. I'm getting rapidly frustrated, so...have you ever built a Pillow Fort before? I kind of have the feeling you would be the person to build pillow forts and watch sappy British movies with me!” Hide smiled. Kaneki shook his head. “Is a Pillow Fort what I think it is?” Kaneki raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

In retrospect, Kaneki had guessed exactly right. He had watched in awe while Hide had built the fort. Now they were back-to-back and completely surrounded by pillows, a blanket around their shoulders. “This comfortable?” Hide asked, voice soothing and calm. “This is perfect, Hide” Kaneki laid his head back, it laid on Hide's shoulders, eyes to the ceiling of the fort. Hide finger-combed Kaneki's hair, muttering about their softness. Kaneki felt his eyes slip shot from the pleasure, as Hide let his fingers move in circles.

“'Neki, you still 'wake?” Hide whispered. “Barely” Kaneki's voice was slurred.

“Hide?” Kaneki asked after a minute.

“Ya?”

“When are Hide and Banjou coming back?”

“I just remembered Hinami texting me...she's sleeping at a friend's. Banjou is staying with his boyfriend, ya” Hide suppressed a yawn.

“You want to go to bed?” Kaneki asked. The only reply he got was a slight nod he barely felt. Then Hide's breath turned calm and steady. He'd just fallen asleep. Kaneki smiled softly and turned around, laying down on his back, Hide falling against his chest. Hide stirred awake for a second and just turned around, chest against chest. Then they both fell asleep, smiles on their faces.

Around six in the morning, Kaneki woke up, demons were nocturnal creatures after all and he seldom slept longer than six. The fort was utterly destroyed, the remains were scattered all about. He woke up to see Hide's sleeping face, the boy must have fallen off his chest while sleeping. They laid next to each other, the couch was only so wide that they both laid on their sides, their arms intertwined and face-to-face. Hide's head laid on Kaneki's other arm, rendering him completely immobile.

Kaneki was oddly comfortable with the situation.

He waited for Hide to wake up, studying the other boy's face. The brown roots on Hide's head. The slightly thick eyebrows. The small stubbles on his face one could only see if the light shone perfectly. The slightly parted lips.

The boy was beautiful. In every way possible. And Kaneki knew that that wasn't only the demon part in him speaking. That was every part of him falling for the other. “You know it's creepy to look at others when they sleep, right?” Hide's voice was so soft. Kaneki just smiled at him. “I just wanted to know what it could be that made me enjoy waking up next to you so much” Kaneki said. Hide smiled, a sincere smile and not a grin.

“Wait, did I just say that out loud?” Kaneki tried clasping his hands over his mouth but they were still immobilized by Hide's body. “'Neki” Hide said, his voice barely a whisper, “I'm going to try something and you'll have to tell em when to stop, okay?” The blonde leaned in, eyes fluttering shut. Following an instinct, Kaneki also closed his eyes.

Their lips met slowly, then parted again, nothing more than a butterfly kiss. A butterfly, flying down from the skies and landing on their lips. Through half-lidded eyes, Hide asking for reassurance. Through half-lidded eyes, Kaneki gave his consent. Hide turned Kaneki on his back, put his own elbows next to Kaneki's head. Their faces were only inches apart, Hide towering over Kaneki.

This time, the kiss was more heated. There was more hands stroking down backs, ruffling hair. There were more legs folding around each other's back. And after a minute or so, after Hide had made Kaneki moan into the kiss the first time, both their shirts just magically disappeared, hands trailing down bodies.

Hide parted their lips again, looking up at Kaneki's flushed face. “Do you like hickeys?” he asked, voice low. Kaneki gently shook his head, Hide trailed his tongue down Kaneki's neck, stopping to suck on the collarbone and giving him a bright nudge. A medium-sized blue spot appeared.

In the end, they didn't go all the way. Kaneki got uncomfortable after a while. But Kaneki still had a love bruise on his neck, clearly visible even through the thin sark-shirt he brought with him the day before. “Hide, do you have, like, something I could wear over this?” Kaneki looked at him with big gray eyes. “Ya, sure, just follow me!” Hide answered.

They stood in Hide's bedroom, Hide reached Kaneki the only sweater he could find that would fit Kaneki. “You look great in bright colors, 'Neki” Hide beamed. “Seriously? I feel like a nerd, see?” Kaneki fidgeted around. “Ya, but you're – my – nerd!” Kaneki sighed. “I gotta shower” Hide winked at him and left the door to the bathroom open.

Kaneki slipped into the shower while Hide was facing the wall. The paler one took a moment to admire Hide's back muscles. His gaze wandered lower and lower. “Hey, Hide” Kaneki started, “you shave your legs?”

Only one minute later, Kaneki had pressed Hide against the walls of the shower cabin, each boy's hands roaming about the other's body. Hide grabbed Kaneki's shoulders, switching positions.

It was pure effective time management that they made it to school in time. Hide's jaw was a little aching, but the sounds he had heard from his best friend's mouth have been worth it. Kaneki still was a little off track. In fact, he was so off-track he had forgotten to wear the shirt Hide had offered him, instead wearing a plain white tee-shirt under Hide's bright yellow and green jacket.

The whole day, Hide hadn't stopped grinning like an idiot, bumping Kaneki's side and semi-unobtrusive ghosting his fingers through Kaneki's hair. Only at the end of the second 20-minute-break had Hide finally told Kaneki about the clearly visible hickey on the base of his neck. The reaction on Kaneki's face had been hilarious.

“You comin'?” Hide asked, putting the way too heavy backpack on his shoulders and exhaling. Behind him, alongside Kaneki, were Juuzou and Chie. Juuzou ran up front and linked his arm with Hide, smiling at him from below. With his child-like voice, he asked if anyone had ever been to the mall in town before.

Apparently, going to the mall with Juuzou included being followed around by two suspicious men in white expensive suits. “Eh, Juu?” Chie asked, gripping her camera tightly, “Do you know those two?” Juuzou stopped walking and turned around two face the men. “Nah, never seen them. Let's wait up, maybe they just want to ask for the directions” a grin stretched across his features. It wasn't pleasant like Hide's at all.

“Hey, you two! Ya, you with the weird masks!” Juuzou waved frantically. Hide and Chie stood behind him, Kaneki trying to think of where he had seen those two before – he had seen them somewhere. “You got any reason to follow us around? If you wanna join our merry bunch, feel free to!” The men grunted in unison and took a step closer to Juuzou. They towered over the white-haired boy. “Suzuya Rei. We are supposed to bring you back home. Boss Naki says your mother's been missing her little toy.” No emotion was present in those words. But when the men had said “Rei”, Hide had been able to see Juuzou tensing up, even if it was only for a split second. A weird reaction for an obviously trained fighter.

“So, what're y'all gonna do? Pick me up, get me home to Big Madam? No fucking thanks!” While Juuzou still spat the last phrase at them, he had already grabbed behind his back and from seemingly nowhere materialized a huge scythe. He swung it around and in one swift motion cut open both the White Suits' chests. “You go to your oh-so-bossy Boss Naki, you show him that and say: Juuzou has kindly declined. Now, get the fuck out” a blur of white hair was the only sign of Juuzou's existence as he swung his scythe and cut a deep wound into each man's chest.

One chest was sporting a bloody-red “J”, the other an “S”. “Juuzou, that's enough already.” Hide chimed in, his voice lacking all the sunshine it had contained before. Juuzou smiled warily and let the men alone. Then he put the scythe back into place.

Kaneki stood at the scene for another ten seconds. He then realized where he had seen the White Suits before. They had been helping Jason and Dr. Kanou make him into a half-demon. He shuddered at the memory, fists clenching and loosening. Cold sweat broke out on his neck as his mind was pulled back into the checkered chamber.

He couldn't see, his eyes were blinded by the shock of white light flashing into his eyes. “Jason, I seem to recall telling you not to mess him up too badly! See what you give me to patch up again!” Slowly, Kaneki's vision crept back, his eyes focusing on the doctor right in front of him, his other senses also returned, he could hear the constant ringing in his ears unnerving him to no end, the cold metal under his back and the tight straps fixing his arms to the metal surface. He could only move his head. He turned it around to see the disgusting smile painting the hard features of a white-blonde man, Jason mask halfway up his hair.

“But it's been effective, Doc. See, his demon form is almost complete. If I may show you...” the man grabbed huge pliers and Kaneki felt the cold metal against his right ring finger. He trashed his head around and screamed, the sick laugh of Jason in his ears, the metal closing in on his ringfinger

slender fingers stroking through his hair, Hide's reassuring words, the slowly fading scene, Hide's big brown eyes, his secure hold and the feeling of safety. “Kaneki? Kaneki, you hear me? Hey, Kaneki!” Hide shook his shoulders slightly. Kaneki's head rolled back and consciousness left his body.


	4. Chapter 4

It turned out Kaneki's demon part's decision was a good one. As soon as consciousness had left his frail body, Hide had already been picking him up, flashing an apologetic smile at Chie and Juuzou. Kaneki had woken up recently, the stench of disinfectants lingering in his nostrils. He was at a hospital, Hide restlessly pacing about the room. “Hide, calm down. I already told you it's nothing.” Kaneki's voice was strained by choked back tears.

The doctor with a huge white lab coat entered the room. “So, you must be … uhm … Sasaki Haise?” she asked with a soothing voice. Kaneki nodded. Hide must've stated that name. It was rather nice. “Your friend had told us you suddenly lost consciousness? Triggered by two people in white coats?” her name tag read Kosaka Yoriko.

“That's right, but it's nothing, you see” Kaneki smiled at her, hoping it would seem reassuring. “Is that so. Well, we must give you a once-over anyway. Also” she smiled, “I am also at the school. You don't have to hide anything from me.” Kaneki smiled again, genuine this time. While the laws that had forbidden use of powers had officially been revoked, most people still were wary about Users.

However, humans are born racists. So a lot of them still classified every User or creature as lower than humans. And so there had been a rapidly growing human organization called “Knights of the Iron Fist” or short Iron Knights, who weren't banned because the politicians of the world were in the organization. And at the time Kaneki laid on the bed in the hospital they officially had 4.5 billion members. There were around 7 billion people on the world who weren't able to use magic, as well as 1.5 billion Users and creatures.

So when Kosaka had said she wasn't a human, of course Kaneki had been relieved.

When they stepped out of the hospital, Kaneki grabbed for Hide's hand. Hide smiled, again from the angle just a little lower than Kaneki's face. “Thank The Light or someone we're outta there!” Hide breathed out a huge sigh. “And thank The Darkness we 'on't have school this afternoon, that would look so weird! Being absent on the first week of school, new record even for me!” Hide's smile grew larger. “So, what do you say? Wanna go somewhere?” Hide laughed.

Since it was still warm and sunny out, they decided to go grab some take-away food and sit down somewhere at the park. Hide apparently knew the “Most bestest” (Quote Hide) burger joint in town. Though Kaneki had never really been one for burgers, he had to admit that Big Girl's were absolutely mouth-watering. “Oh see, they even have rice burgers! Hey, are you even listening?” Hide chimed on and on as they stood in queue. “Welcome to Big Girl's burger restaurant, what can I serve you?” the assistant behind the desk asked, faux-smiling at everyone.

Hide grabbed both their food and pulled out his wallet, getting ready to pay when a huge guy walked over to them. He practically radiated danger. In both his hands were special anti-magic switchblades. On his jacket was imprinted the logo of the Iron Knights. No one dared to stand in his way. Hide set the burgers back on the desk and bowed only a little. “You dirty fucks! How dare you desecrate our God in such a way! You unnatural disgusting inhumans!” the man screamed, spit flying in Hide's face.

Hide didn't even flinch. He just wiped it off. “I am sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused you” Hide started, the joyful undertone gone without a trace. He had switched into serious mode now. “You have used that damned magic of yours! You pigs!” The people around them made a circle. Nobody intervened. The huge man launched an attack towards Kaneki and Hide. Hide teleported behind him. “Again, I am sorry. Actually, I am not. But I don't want to hurt anyone and I was taught to react this way when someone … whoa there, almost got me … tried attacking me” Hide easily evaded every attack, blabbing about how the human should just put his blades away. But the blonde never once launched an attack on his own. That would only make things worse.

Kaneki hadn't seen the other man with the Iron Knight's crest and shotgun in his hand until he felt the barrel pressing into his back. “Hasta la vista” he heard the man scream and felt the pain of being impaled about fifteen times by the pellets. He flew across the room, staining the floor red. His vision became blurry and he wanted to fight against it, he couldn't afford to lose consciousness now. Then the realization hit him. His blood was all across the room. He closed his eyes and had the picture of the handgun in his mind.

Easily recreating it, he signed Hide to leave Big Girl's. Hide nodded grimly, teleported to the counter, grabbed the food, payed and was outside the restaurant within a single second. Kaneki pointed his gun at the attacker, cocking his head to the side, white hair way puffier than his usual black. “Why don't y'all get the fuck outta here?” he grimaced, the levitating gun circling around the one man, the other completely frozen. The man with the gun at his head stood exactly like that. “You got the fucking guts, gotta hold it to you” Kaneki's voice now bared any emotion. With a laugh, he fired the gun trice, effectively destroying the attacker's weapons. The man without the weapon screamed and immediately gave up the fight. Kaneki didn't spare him a single glance.

“Would you really fucking kill me? With your friend standing out there? Looking at you? Would you fucking want him to see you as a killer? Would you fucking be okay with him disgusted by you?” the remaining man didn't as much as flinch when Kaneki cocked the gun for show. “Do you” he stepped closer, “want him to see you as a monster?” The last part was whispered into Kaneki's ear. The boy stumbled backwards. The gun returned to the state of useless droplets. The man laughed. “A fucking monster” and Kaneki's hair grew black.

Strong, tan arms were around Kaneki's hips, lifting him off the floor and away. They flashed to the door to Hide's apartment. “No matter what that guy just said” Hide started, “you will not be alone, ever” Hide leaned in, Kaneki flush against the wall. Hide connected their lips, a reassuring kiss. Kaneki leaned in, seeking the warm feeling of home Hide always offered him.

Mortified, Hinami walked into the kitchen. Banjou sat there, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. “Hina?” the man asked. “Brother … Brother is making out with Kanemi or whatever, Banjou. It's … Gross!” the girl curled up on the floor in a corner of the kitchen. Banjou laughed good-heartedly and rubbed her back. “Oh Hina, I'm sorry you had to watch that” Hinami nodded weakly.

“I take it Kaneki is staying here tonight?” Banjou smiled at the boys sitting on the bench across the table. “Oh, please don't … “ Hide's attempt was futile. “I guess it is” Banjou let his voice drop conspiratorially, “time for The Talk.”

Hide and Kaneki had had a hard time evading Banjou's questions, scurrying out of the room before the man was even halfway through his Talk. Now they laid on Hide's bed, each having one earbud in one ear, listening to Hide's music. “Hide” Kaneki asked in a whisper. The raven's head was rested upon Hide's chest, listening to the beats of the other's heart. Somehow, even though he didn't like touching other people, Kaneki was craving Hide's touch, his scent, his aura.

“Ya?” Hide brought up a hand to disarray Kaneki's hair. “I've just been thinking … and it hasn't come up yet, you see … what kind of creature are you? I mean, you know I'm half a …” Hide hummed. “Take a guess” he whispered, Kaneki felt the vibrations. “You are not a were-animal, that's for sure. Obviously not a spirit, right? And a ghoul would smell like blood all the time.” Hide scrunched his nose. “But there is something human about you so you're neither a demon nor an angel” Hide sighed. “Actually, I am. Half of one, to be exact!”

“You're half an angel? How does that even work?” Kaneki was growing tired, it was 11 pm and he had already been unconscious that day. Also, Hide's soothing hands in his hair was a factor. “Kinda, see, you heard of guardians?” Hide's also slurred. “Not yet?” Kaneki whispered. “We're people who died to save another, see, Hinami? Ya, she walked in front of a giant truck.” Kaneki gulped. “And then I jumped in front of it. I didn't even know little Hinami's name, I just needed to protect the little sunshine.” Hide's voice was restricted by choked back tears. “Well, when I came back, kinda one year ago, I immediately searched for Hinami, had nowhere else to go.” Hide was not leaking tears, they fell on Kaneki's face.

“Hinami and Banjou, they are … such great people” Hide buried his face in his hands. Kaneki lifted his sleepy head off the blond's chest. “Hide? It's okay, you are the best guy imaginable. Sacrificing yourself is so like you! And that Hinami's alive is only your merit!” Hide nodded slowly. “'Neki, you have such a nice way with words” the blond mumbled and pulled Kaneki completely on top of him. He pulled him into a tender kiss.

When Kaneki woke up, he realized he wasn't laying on top of Hide anymore. The blonde laid next to him, sound asleep. Kaneki's grabbed his cellphone and looked at the time. It was four am. There was no way Kaneki would fall asleep anytime soon, so he just rolled on his side to watch his boyfriend sleep. He knew how creepy that looked, but he couldn't stop himself. The boy was gorgeous.

Hide stirred in his sleep. His legs clasped around Kaneki left one, rendering him immobile. Kaneki stroked Hide's face. Hide leaned into the touch subconsciously, one eye cracking open. “'Neki? Why you awake?” Hide was still more than half asleep. Kaneki pushed the smaller one down into the mattress. “Just sleep, Hide” he muttered. Hide nodded slowly and doze off again.

There was the pitter-patter of naked feet outside the bedroom door. Kaneki had heard them quite a while now, but he just then realized it was something he had to check out. His brain was a little clouded, with the scent of his boyfriend in his nostrils and the time of day.

Kaneki silently untangled his leg from Hide's. He walked to the door, a glance back at Hide, and opened it. There was a small female figure standing in the kitchen. She turned her head around, eyeing him. Long green hair was flowing around her. Kaneki wondered where he had seen her before.

“So you're awake. I wondered when you would come out of that room.” the voice sent shivers down his spine and he remembered. This was the Reaper he and Hide had met while buying the xBox. “Kaneki Ken, I presume?” she stretched out her hand. Kaneki was frozen still. “You can take it. After all, you are a demon.” Kaneki slowly took the hand. It was freezing cold, like she didn't even have any life in her.

“I am Yoshimura Eto, by the way.” Kaneki's eyes widened. Yoshimura, the first demon to have ever walked on the human surface, better known as “Kuzen” to Users and “Non-Killing Owl” to the Iron Knights. His daughter was only known as “Owl”. Eto grabbed a knife from the counter and madde herself a sandwich. The whole situation was comical, one of the strongest creatures existent standing in the kitchen and making herself a sandwich, like that was the most normal thing in the world.

“How did you come in here?” asked Kaneki deadpanned. “I beg your pardon, I am the third-strongest demon in the world. Do you think a lock on a door would be enough to shield me off?” she laughed. Kaneki wondered why no one could hear her talking, she wasn't even toning her voice down. “And your next question – I created a sound barrier.” Kaneki shuddered. Could she read his thoughts. “Boy, of course I can't read your thoughts. I just have about five-hundred years of experience.”

“Why are you here?” Kaneki groaned slightly. Eto laughed again, her gruesome laugh was fascinating. “I am here to cause mayhem” she said, a sick smile spreading on her face, “Why do you think are all four Reapers in this city?”

Kaneki sat down on the floor. She leaned down. “Don't worry” she let her hand cup his face, “yet”. Then she just vanished. A faint trace of her perfume was lingering in the air. A Red Spider Lily* hung in Kaneki's hair. He sat on the chair. The sandwich still laid on the counter.

Every Reaper wore a Spider Lily somewhere.

As far as Kaneki knew, there only were three Reapers.

Only Reapers were allowed to know another Reaper's full name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *=the flower that was shown in S1/Ep12 during Kaneki's torture.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There will be some seriously heavy shit in the next chapters (a magic fvcking war) and that's why here's some fluff. Oh ya and also there's some bonding. And implied sexy time.

“Hey, buddy, you alright?” Hide nudged Kaneki's arm. It's been a week since the meeting with Eto. Kaneki desperately tried to make himself think it was only a hallucination, he's had them before. But after he had found the Lily on his upper arm, like a tattoo, he couldn't just forget all about it. He had wanted to talk with his teacher Arima about it, but couldn't bring up the courage.

“Ya, of course I am, why would you ask?” his hand wandered to his chin. The boys sat in English class and Hide was bored to death while Kaneki actually tried to learn how to use the weird Roman letter system. He had the feeling he was getting the hang of it.

“You're terrible at lying. It's because that Eto chick, right?” Kaneki nodded. He had tried not to tell Hide about it, but the boy was so perceptive it hadn't taken him long to figure it out. “Well then, we gotta talk to another Reaper about that tattoo thingy. And, oh wonder, one is right in front of us!” Hide whispered. Nobody dared to speak aloud in Kishou Arima's classes.

English Class was over fairly soon after that. Hide dragged Kaneki to the desk when everyone else wanted to get out of the room. “Mr Arima, we have some questions concerning you – and Kaneki here.” Hide started, his cheery voice suddenly serious. Arima nodded. “I wondered when you would muster up the strength. Now, Mr Nagachika, I must ask you to leave this room.” Hide shook his head. “No way. 'Neki's my boyfriend and I am going to stay here” Hide was stubborn, even in front of Arima's dark aura.

Kaneki nodded. “Please, Mr Arima, let him stay.” he choked out. Arima slowly pulled back his chair and motioned for them to sit down. His eyes were unfocused. “Eto visited you.” Arima said. “Yes, she left me something” he rolled up his sleeve and showed it to Arima. The Reaper's eyes widened by an almost unnoticeable fraction.

“And I presume she told you about the meeting?” Arima readjusted his glasses, his gaze unsteady. “She has … I don't know why though.” Kaneki looked away. “Of course you don't. Eto is unpredictable. I guess she only wanted to wreak havoc.” Arima leaned a little back, steadying his gaze on a spot behind Kaneki. It was creepy, as if he saw right through him.

Kaneki felt Hide's hand on his back, reassuring. “You understand that you must absolutely attend the meeting.” Kaneki shook his head. “But why must he?” Hide asked in his place. Kaneki nodded, he just couldn't talk in Arima's presence. The power this man radiated was just too suppressing. “Mr Kaneki, you must not contravene with a Reaper's wish. If you don't show up on your own, one of us Reapers will come and take you.” Hide raised a hand. Arima shot him a glance. “And I hereby grant you permission to have your little boyfriend here consort us.” Kaneki audibly sighed in relief. Arima stood up and went to the door.

“Mr Arima” Hide spoke up, “Mr Arima, you forgot your briefcase!” Arima turned around and grabbed the black and gold valise. “Thank you, Mr Nagachika. I look forward to the meeting with you and Mr Kaneki.” Arima turned on his heel, strutted out the door. As soon as he was gone, the boys heard a camera clicking. “That was amusing to watch” Chie's chiming voice rang through the room. Kaneki and Hide flinched.

“Let's go grab some lunch, Juuzou is waiting!” she linked her arms with both the boys, effectively placing herself in the middle. “Chie, we still have two classes” Kaneki intervened. Chie shook her head. “What will they do, kick us out where we'll only be killed by Iron Knights?” she laughed at Hide and Kaneki's shocked faces. “What did you guys think we're here for if not for learning how to defend ourselves? I have heard that there are some people in the User community that even plan an uproar, and that's why we are trained in the usage of our powers.” Kaneki shook his head. “Nobody would be stupid enough to wage a full blown war against the Knights of the Iron Fist!” Chie nodded slowly.

“But if there are people who would, it would be a great story!” she grabbed her camera, ran two steps, kneeled down on the floor and took a photo, her camera instantly printing it out. It showed the school's architecture, all glass and béton brut. But on the picture it looked like something straight out of a fairy tale, the colors warm, the concrete looked like marble and the glass shone in the rainbow's colors.

Kaneki and Hide looked at the picture in awe. “You have a great eye, Chie” Hide grinned at her and she smiled back. “You know what, Hide? If you let me piggy-back ride, I will give you one of my favorite pictures!” Hide kneeled down and she jumped on his shoulders. Like a smaller sister would, imagined Kaneki. “You know what, Hide?” she must have guessed Kaneki's thoughts, “You are perfect big brother material.” Kaneki and Hide laughed at that, thinking about Hinami.

Juuzou sat at a table in the way-way-back of the school-intern caféteria, sweets and snacks scattered all around him, his huge eyes searching for them. As soon as he saw the group, he stood on a chair and waved his arms. Kaneki chuckled a little as Hide took off, Chie still on his back. He walked towards the others and watched how Hide tried (awkwardly and insufficiently) to hug Juuzou while Chie occupied his arms and shoulders.

Five minutes later, they stood in queue. Kaneki's stomach was a little upset from the talk with Arima, so he only took a yoghurt and a sandwich. Hide's tray, on the other hand, looked like he was getting ready to go on a husky-sledge race in Alaska, in December, and pregnant. “How can you eat that much?” Kaneki nudged Hide's arm. “I gotta grow up to grow big, strong and healthy!” Kaneki chuckled. “There is no need to chuckle just because you're like one inch taller than me” Hide pouted. Kaneki pointed out three fingers, three inches. Hide then proceeded to try and bite the digits, like an upset dog.

Kaneki only laughed and pushed the other onwards. When they were back at the table with Juuzou, Hide was still sulking. He sat down, right across the table from Kaneki. “Stop pouting, it makes you even cuter than usually” he whispered in Hide's ear, leaning forward. Hide sighed through his nose and turned his head, stealing a kiss from Kaneki. They heard a camera clicking. “See, I told you, Juuzou! But you big meany wouldn't believe me!”

Kaneki blushed fiercely and started eating his sandwich slowly as Juuzou and Chie bombarded Hide and him with questions. “Wait, if Brother's a guardian and Kaneki's a half-demon …” Chie started and looked at Juuzou, “doesn't that make you two like Romeo and Juliet? That is soooo cute” she snatched a chocolate bar from Juuzou's pile of sweets.

Kaneki buried his face in his palms and Hide laughed his contagious laughter, Juuzou joining in. But Kaneki's thoughts were far away from his friends, he still thought about the offer – or rather command – he was given by his teacher. It was only two days form now. What could they possibly be planning? If what Chie was saying was true, they probably planned the war out in detail. But if the Users and Creatures were to fight against the Iron Knights, the Demons would have to join forces with the Angels. And Kaneki supposed that most human Users would never fight against their own kin.

Then again, this was all hypothetically speaking. Never would anyone wage a war which would leave the world scarred beyond recognition.

Or at least, Kaneki hoped nobody would.

“Hey, 'Neki, you wanna go grab some of your stuff and get it over to my place? Would be far easier than just teleporting back and forth every day every time you need a change of clothes, right?” Hide beamed at Kaneki. School was out for the day and they sat on Hide's bed, Hide between Kaneki's legs and the raven's chin resting on the blond's head. Hide was playing a game on his console, while Kaneki was busy breathing in the scent of his hair.

It smelled like raspberry conditioner, by the way. Apparently, every shower gadget the boy possessed was berry-scented. “That would feel a lot like me moving in with you” Kaneki said, his arms wrapping themselves around Hide. “I don't hear any resistance in your voice, 'Neki” Hide chuckled. “Let's do that later, not now” Kaneki muttered, digging his nose into Hide's nape, “let's just stay like this for a while.” Hide shuddered from the hot trail of air in his neck. He turned around to steal a small kiss from his boyfriend.

Truth be told, Hide never wanted to just place a peck on Kaneki's lips. But he wouldn't have thought that it would turn into a make-out session so fast. He could feel Kaneki's cold hands trailing over his skin under his shirt, his own hands on Kaneki's butt. Kaneki laid under him, face red and eyes opaque. The boy was exceptionally hot like this.

The door creaked open and a mortified scream rang in Kaneki's ears. “Dad, they're doing it AGAIN!” Hinami yelled and slammed the door shut behind her. Hide literally jumped off Kaneki, teleported in a corner of the room, when Banjou came in, laughing whole-heartedly. “I told'cha guys, stop makin' poor Hina's eyes bleed!” Banjou waved them to the table.

“Oh my gosh, Banjou. Those steaks are mind-blowing!” Hide dug into his smiling. “Dad make brother stop eating like a pig.” Hinami refused to talk to both Hide and Kaneki since seeing what she had seen. “Hide, ya heard ya sis.” Kaneki had slowly but surely gotten accustomed to the weird speech patterns of the older man, actually coming to like them. Everyone in this little household had their own few quirks and Kaneki warmed up every time they showed. Hide grunted, but cut the humongous piece on his fork once in the middle.

When they finished, Hide stood up, put his plate away and told the bunch he and Kaneki would be grabbing some stuff from Kaneki's flat. Banjou winked at them and Hinami made a small gagging sound. Laughing, Hide grabbed Kaneki's hand and flashed to his boyfriend's apartment complex. “So, what do ya need?” Hide cast his arm around the raven's shoulder. Kaneki didn't answer directly, just grabbing his duffle bag, throwing in a pair of pajamas and some other clothes. Meanwhile, Hide explored the small flat's even smaller bathroom, shocked to see that Kaneki only had a three-in-one shower gel.

With the gel in his hand, accusingly holding it up above Kaneki's eye-level, Hide raised a single eyebrow. “How the hell does your hair stay all soft and nice when you rape it with this every day?” Hide mocked him. Kaneki huffed loudly, closing his eyes. “Well, first of all, I didn't dishonor my hair with what bleaching it – oh stop pouting, you – and also I just have strong hair!” Hide shook his head. “No, you're not going to ruin your beautiful hair with that anymore. I'll go shopping with you tomorrow.” Hide took the bottle and threw it across the room, missing the trash bin. “Anyway, you finished here?” Hide took the bag, it was pretty light. Kaneki nodded slowly, taking Hide's arm and smiling as the blond teleported them straight to the bathroom in the family's flat.

“So, you get in the shower and I'll show you exactly what you'll do, okay?”

In the end, the two boys didn't exactly shower much(*).

They laid next to each other in Hide's bed, pitch-black night outside the window and Kaneki listening to Hide's breath. The blond was curled up against Kaneki's chest, the firm back muscles shifting ever so slightly. Kaneki ran his hand through his lover's silky hair. It was times like these when he felt the most at ease, Hide's scent in his nose, Hide's skin against his and Hide's hair in his palms. Just … Hide.

He fell asleep at around 12 pm. The next morning was pretty routine, just the normal procedure of waking the sleepy-head up, showering (together, saving water and reducing time they couldn't be together), having breakfast, getting ready. Except something felt off. It took Kaneki a while to figure out what it was: there was no smell of coffee in the apartment.

When the boys made their way into the kitchen, they found a quickly scribbled note on the table instead of bacon and eggs like normally. Kaneki leaned forth, his resolve in learning how to read roman letters paying out. It seemed Banjou preferred writing in these, even when writing Japanese. The letter was only two lines, but they disturbed the whole morning routine:

“Sorry there's no breakfast. Hina's found that “ultra cute” (quote) Coffee Shop Antique or Anteiku or something. Help yourselves, money for breakfast's on the counter. - Dad”

“Oh, great. I always wanted to eat breakfast in a deli.” Hide's voice was dripping with sarcasm. “Come on, Hide, it's not like we have any other choice.” Kaneki tugged at Hide's sleeve. The blond strode towards the freezer. “No, Hide, we are not having ice cream for the first meal in the morning!” Kaneki sighed in exasperation. “If we're not, we're at least going somewhere cool. You still got any Japanese Yen on you?” Hide looked at Kaneki.

“Hide, you can't run over a whole ocean(**) just to get some breakfast.” Kaneki deadpanned. “Oh, of course I can. I can run across the US four times. Back and forth.” Hide bragged. Kaneki was silenced. “Come on, it'll be fun!” And with that, Hide took Kaneki on his back and jumped out the window.

It was fun. Though it was already 11 pm in Tokyo, there were still some shops open that sold traditional Japanese bento. The shop owner did look pretty confused when two damp boys, clearly of Japanese origin but also tourists stood before him and ordered his best box. Kaneki adressed Hide in English, the Iron Knights had spies everywhere and they wouldn't want to be found out. “Hide, I told you, you can't just simply run across an ocean without getting wet even a little.” Hide darted out his tongue, then it clicked. “Oh dear, please don't make that pun” Kaneki sighed. Hide grinned at him and turned his back to the owner before making kind of a peace sign in front of his mouth and darting his tongue through it.

Kaneki blushed so fiercely he was asked if he had caught a sick by the shop owner.

When they finally had their food, Hide insisted on running back across. “School's starting in five minutes, 'Neki” he yelled and jumped into the water with Kaneki on his back. They made it to school in time, but this time their pants had gotten seriously wet up to the knees. Also Kaneki could see that it was taking a toll out of Hide. Without that good night's rest the boy had the day before … Kaneki shuddered at the thought of drowning in the ice cold Pacific Ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *= they didn't have actual sex though. Their relationship is still too young for that, but it turned out that both of them were great at giving blowjobs. Hide more than Kaneki though, the blond loved giving them more than receiving them anyway.
> 
> **= flash stepping, the form of teleport I use here (because it's easiest to write OTL), can technically walk over water. I mean, you're running at .9 c or 90% of the speed of light. Theoretically, .2 c would be enough, but it would make the water burn. Science is crazy. Anyway, with a large body of water, such as an ocean, the heat could be absorbed faster than enough water could evaporate to split the other molecules into Hydrogen and Oxygen (H+O+heat => boom). Hide, a medium-level flash stepper, runs with .5 c, enough to cast afterimages and make a toast while running simply by the friction of air molecules.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahahaha yes the drama and angst and despair is starting. But don't you cry too much, there'll still be a fucklot of fluff here.
> 
> At least for the next few chapters OTL

Kaneki's thoughts were wandering throughout the entire day, and dangerously often, they would linger on the subject of the oncoming meeting of the Reapers. He had no clue what would happen once he was there, but he had a feeling that it would have something to do with what Chie had told him and Hide when they were walking towards the caféteria.

Kaneki had thought about it a lot, he talked to Hide about it and actually considered outward asking Arima, but had decided against it. He and Hide had come to the conclusion that, except if the Reapers had some weird, extremely strong weapon, they wouldn't dare wage a five-fronted war. The normal humans, the Users, the Demons, the Angels and the Knights of the Iron Cross.

But then again, Eto and Arima had both said that the other three Reapers were weirdly inconsistent about their morals and often unpredictable regarding their actions. And Kaneki could first-hand confirm that Eto was bat-shit insane.

Kaneki felt a little nudge on his arm right then. “'Neki? You okay? You look like you really need a good night's sleep” Hide laid his hand over Kaneki's and looked the other in the eye. “Yes, I should definitely sleep more. If it wasn't for some extremely powerful creatures that have invited me to their crazy meeting, I could.” Kaneki hadn't meant to be so insultingly sarcastic about it. But the sleep deprivation he had was really gnawing at his nerves. Hide only held his hand more powerful.

“Ken” he said, his tone was serious. Kaneki felt himself instantly relaxing. Whenever Hide would use his first name, he knew the other was completely sincere about whatever they were talking about. Hide slowly moved his thumb over Kaneki's backhand and Kaneki leaned back a little. “Thanks” he said quietly and put his gaze back on the blackboard.

When school ended that day, they didn't immediately go off to Hide's home, but decided to go and sit somewhere, talk things out and eat some ice cream. They found themselves near a little playground with a giant whale in the middle of it. The sun already started setting when they climbed up the whale's back and started eating their ice cream. Actually, it was more like they were feeding each other.

It was already past ten when Hide proceeded to lay on his back, putting the back of his head in Kaneki's lap and looking at the other from under him. “Ken” Hide started, scooting closer to Kaneki taking the raven-haired boy's hand. “Hide?” Kaneki buried his free hand in Hide's soft locks. “I love you” Hide said fondly, the words barely more than a whisper. He propped himself up on his elbows and leaned upwards. His lips were only centimeters from Kaneki's. Whose cheeks were tinted so deeply red he was practically glowing. “I love you too, Hide” he insinuated against the other's lips.

The kiss was nothing like the other kisses they had shared before, it was much more tender and soft, more loving and trusting, more needing and trusting. That was what they shared, trust. They kissed for as long as their lungs allowed them to. When they finally broke apart, finished their ice cream and flash-stepped home, every thought about the meeting were gone, replaced with rose red love.

“You boys seriously take the 'looking deeply into the other's eyes'-game pretty far” they heard a soft albeit threatening low voice behind them. Hide and Kaneki turned around, shocked. A Reaper's voice, it couldn't possibly be . Behind them stood Eto, long hair flowing around her form

“I'm here to pick you two up. You have twenty more minutes, then be exactly here, okay?” Eto's voice didn't leave room for arguments and so Hide just nodded, took Kaneki's hand and flashed to his apartment.

“Banjou? Get Hinami, will ya?” Hide said, serious mode activated. Banjou nodded grimly. He came back into the room a minute later, Hinami behind him. Hide and Kaneki leaned against the broder of the kitchen desk. “Hide? It's about that meeting, right?” Banjou's voice had lost its usual playful undertone and faked accent. Hide nodded, taking Kaneki's hand and rubbing in circles over it. Hinami was looking giddy. “Hinami?” Hide started, scratching the back of his head nervously, “Hinami, I ...” Hinami lifted a hand, interrupting Hide mid-speech. She pulled Hide into a hug, opening her arms extra wide so she could also pull Kaneki into the hug.

Banjou obviously looked out of place, not having anything to hug at all, so Hide waved him over and the man awkwardly wrapped his arms around the group. Kaneki felt his normal no-touchy-attire fall off a little, he even leaned into the group hug.

“Hideyoshi, Kaneki. I don't know what you're going to talk about at the meeting, probably will never know. But promise little Hina and me this one thing: come back. Come back together” Banjou choked out, tears leaking out of his eyes. Hide and Kaneki looked each other in the eye, then looking back up. “We promise” they said, in unison. And that was all to be told.

“Now get outta here, don't wanna be late for ya first Reaper's meet, huh?” the man ushered them out the door, putting on his façade of toughness. “I love you too, Banjou” Hide replied laughing, it was forced. Kaneki nodded slowly, Hinami and he exchanged a look. That look seemed to say everything that couldn't be said through the group hug. It said “Watch out for Hide or I'll rip your ass open” but in a nice way and Kaneki smiled.

“Two minutes early!” exclaimed, “Just when I wanted to barge into the tender moment you two probably had. Oh well … “ Eto walked into a direction, right up to a concrete wall, mimicking Hide's way of walking. She must've been watching the boys for quite some while, that was exactly what she was telling them through only that action. Kaneki shivered.

“Miss Eto, you're walking straight up into a wall?” Hide quietly said, Eto shrugging and walking on, through the wall. “Oh come on, that was cheap” Hide insisted, grabbed Kaneki's hand and effectively telefragged a segment of the wall to smithereens. “Flashy” Eto commented. Hide shot her a glare. “Now, come along. I will lead you to the meeting.” Eto cheered a little.

After being led through way too dark and small alleys (and a lot of them), they stood in front of a small cabin. It was out at the harbor, the water could faintly be heard. The cabin looked quite nice to live in, not at all like a place where the strongest beings from the Realm of the Darkness would meet and discuss … something.

Eto opened the door with his foot, kicking it all the way open and having it crash against the wall on the inside. “Flashy” Hide chuckled drily and the grown-up sticked his tongue out at him. “Please, take a seat” Eto gesticulated towards the table, pulling a chair back for Kaneki. She didn't even spare Hide a solitary glance anymore.

Kaneki looked around the room. At a table sat Arima, seemingly waiting for someone, and a tall, dark-haired man with a giant smile on his face, a mole under his right eye. He stood up, walked around the table and towards Kaneki and Hide, extending his hand. “I am Furuta Nimura, but you may call me your future nightmare” the man laughed and Kaneki and Hide decided they both didn't like him.

The group heard a ship honk out in the harbor. At that moment, the ceiling gave in, dust flying everywhere and some weird thing with its hair stuck up in a huge ponytail, mask over its face and red cloak on stood in the middle of the chaos. The thing took out a small electronic watch and clicked it. It showed the time. Exactly 8 am.

“Now that we've all congregated here” Arima started talking, his eyes gazing off, “we should commence our meeting with the Reaper of Two, Eto, telling us why she invited those two gentlemen to this meeting.” Eto looked up. “Oh, just Kaneki – the gloomy black-haired boy over there – piqued my interest. I want to propose involving him in our oncoming plans. Either as an ally or an enemy, I don't care. Even if he decides to go rogue, it won't make any difference having him here or not. He is intelligent enough to figure our plans out without the knowledge of this meeting anyway. The blond? Kaneki took him with him. He's called Nagachika.” Eto finished her monologue, mimicking Arima's high-and-mighty big words speech pattern.

“That is so you, Eto! You can't just simply invite someone along without asking us Reapers before you do it, you know?” Furuta dramatically slammed his fist on the table. The table cracked. “As a matter of fact, I am the Reaper of Two. And thus I only need the Reaper of One's, namely Arima's, countenance on this.” she smiled at Furuta. The tall man pouted. “But I still don't get it, why would you let him hear all our plans? It's a risk and you're gambling not only with your and our lives, but also with the whole Demon race's! I cannot approve of this, Reaper of Two, Eto!” Furuta was seemingly furious but it was obvious he was faking it.

“It's not like it can be changed anyway, right?” The thing still didn't say anything. Eto laughed at Furuta, sticking out her middle finger at him and then turning away, now facing Kaneki. “You might've already guessed, smart as you are, why we're here.” she extended a finger at him and put it under his chin. Her skin was cold as ice. “And if you haven't, you must've heard the rumors I placed into the world, right?” She smiled. Kaneki's face was immediately drained of all color. “A war? You're seriously going to war?” Hide barked out. Eto nodded, not taking her eyes off Kaneki.

“But why? And against whom? For that to decide we have assembled in this space, right?” she said, grandeur in her voice. “You talk like you're the living embodiment of Thesaurus, could you please use words we would understand?” Hide's voice was strained. It was hard on him, as a half-angel to deal with all these powerful Demons in one room.

“In short, we will now discuss our plans. Who to attack first, second, third, which weapons to use and whose alliance to assure.” Eto finished, waving at Furuta. “I have talked to different creatures and human User alliances. The werewolves and ghouls have already assured us to fight alongside us. The mermaids and mermen wish to be left out in case of a war. The werecats bluntly declined us any support, but neither would want to aid the Angels.” Furuta ended, handing out a sheet of paper to everyone.

(A/N: This is gonna be important, please save this somewhere, okay: the current political situation looks something like this)

“Demons' allies: the International Allied Users' Forces, ghouls, werewolves, hellhounds  
Demons' enemies: Angels, Knights of the Iron Fist, Humans w/o abilities, werecats, canes domini

Angel's allies: IAUF, canes domini, spirits  
Angel's enemies: Demons, Iron Knights, humans, werewolves, hellhounds, werecats

IAUF's allies: Demons, Angels, some peace-loving humans, werecats, ghouls, werewolves, hellhounds, canes domini  
IAUF's enemies: Iron Knights, most humans” was written on it.

Hide raised a hand. “Nagachika?” Furuta sounded amused, “you're not in school. When you have a question, feel free to ask” Hide nodded. “It's just that no such entity as the International Allied Users' Forces exists.” Eto chuckled. “That is correct, my dear. Not yet. But what do you think will happen as soon as we declare war on Angels and humans alike?” Hide shook his head. “You can't be so bold about it. Unless you have some powerful weapon hidden away somewhere” Hide scratched his chin. “But I am probably seeing things and you're all just bat...” Kaneki cut him off by digging his fingernails in Hide's palm.

Furuta laughed, exclaiming “Okay, then” and the thing didn't say anything. It seemed to do that a lot. “Please stay collected, Reaper of Three, Furuta.” Arima sighed. Furuta pouted. “It's not like what we'll discuss here will lead to a war or something” Eto chuckled. “Except it will” Eto and Furuta high-fived. Kaneki was thoroughly confused. He looked over at Hide, who passed him a note. “I imagined the meeting to be all serious and stuff” was written on it. Kaneki took the pencil Hide kindly reached him with the pad. “They're seriously planning a war, Hide!” he wrote and passed it back.

Hide nodded slowly, mouthed “I know, Ken”. Arima sighed. “As Reaper of One, I command thee: immediately reposeth!” The Reapers sat back, eyes hazed for a moment. Kaneki was taken aback. Apparently, the higher the number behind the Reaper's name, the stronger they were. Interesting.

“We'll make this short, like ripping off band-aids.” Hide winced for a second, “Those in favor of waging a war against the humans and especially the Knights of the Iron Fist and the Angels, please raise your hand.” Eto said. The thing, Furuta and Eto raised their hands with ranging enthusiasm. Arima's hand stayed down.

The meeting was dismissed after that, the boys got ready to walk back home normally, Kaneki's stomach was upset. They took the direct way, not the complicated one Furuta had led them through. Hide pulled out the recording device from his jacket's pocket. “Chie's gonna get her story, huh?” he put his arm on Kaneki's shoulder.

“You two!” they froze, a masculine voice behind them. “Could people please stop creeping up behind us whenever we have a moment? At least for one day?” Hide sighed through his nose. Before and behind and to the sides of them stood Iron Knights. “See, I would really not like to kill anyone.” Hide started. “Shut the fuck up, punk!” an Iron Knight said, raising a silver handgun at the boys. That was the cue for the rest of the group to get their weapons ready too.

“Look, we're not here to fight” Kaneki said, lowering to one knee and gesturing Hide to also do so. The group didn't lower their weapons. “Well too fucking bad for you, huh?” the man shot a bullet at Kaneki, who was hit in the leg. A scream of agony ripped through the night, the pain overbearing. Hide flashed behind the man with the gun, pulling it from his grip and running up a wall with him, letting him fall to the ground from 20 foot high. A few ribs could be heard breaking while Kaneki's hair already whitened.

There were nine more Iron Knights left, Hide ran towards one and telefragged through his weapon-wielding arm. The man yelped, jerked around and fell to the ground with a pained expression. When Hide came to a halt, Kaneki had already formed his shield and gun, floating atop the former and shooting at the attackers with the latter.

He didn't actually injure any of them though, but Hide could see it was taking a toll on him not to let his homicidal demonic side take control of him. After five more minutes, only one Iron Knight was left standing, completely unfazed. He had been dodging every of Kaneki's bullets and Hide couldn't risk barging in, Kaneki wouldn't see him and probably shoot him. The boy would never forgive himself but if Hide didn't do anything quickly

“OH DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE ALREADY!” Kaneki snapped, his right eye flaring black and red. Kaneki took his switchblade out and slashed across his arm, releasing more blood, Hide saw it must be 4 pints already. He flashed up to Kaneki, who was ready to lift the blade again and took it from him. “If you lose more blood, you'll die from hemorrhage, Kaneki. Let me handle this guy, okay?”Kaneki didn't seem to understand. Hide flashed up a building, laying the frail body down. Then he got ready to fight, let his jacket down on Kaneki and wrapped him up nicely.

Hide and the nameless attacker fought for about ten more minutes, then the guy decided to make himself scarce. Hide called for a few ambulances and then took Kaneki to a hospital himself. The doctors managed to save him, Hide knew his blood type.

When Kaneki slowly opened his eyes, he could see white. Everything around him was sterile white, it smelled like hospital and Hide's shampoo. Slowly, Kaneki opened his eyes completely, seeing that he was, in fact, in a hospital, in a bed, feeling dizzy and Hide lied on the bed, arms wrapped around his boyfriend. Kaneki carefully nudged him awake. “Hide?” Hide mumbled incoherent words, along the lines of “jus' le'mme sleep” and went back to doing just that. “Hey, Sleepyhead” Kaneki sighed. Hide slowly blinked blearily. “'Neki! You're awake!” he leaned up and placed a kiss on Kaneki's lips.

“Boys” a feeble voice came through the door. Hide literally flashed beside the bed and on his nose. “Hina! Oh my god you always come in the worst moments!” Hide and Kaneki both hid their faces in the pillows. Hinami didn't make a faux disgusted face or laughed, she just straight up marched towards Kaneki and smacked him over the head. “You promised me! You promised you'd come home!” she yelled, pulling at the hospital gown Kaneki was wearing.

“But I am here, am I not?” Kaneki smiled at Hinami, slowly the girl calmed down. Hinami curled up on Kaneki's right side. Thank god the bed was so large, because when Hide also decided to climb back into the bed and make himself comfortable there, it was only a little cramped. At that was how Banjou found them, snuggled up and the picture was still on the top ten cutest pictures on the older man's phone.

Just to clarify: that was an honor. The photo competed against puppy dogs AND kitty cats.


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, what probably everyone got by now: this story plays in Los Angeles. Just if you wondered. Oh yeah and I would love to actually get some kind of critique for what I'm writing. Not begging for reviews, just, please tell me what I can make better? Please.

Also, if you've been wondering: Hide brought Kaneki to a special User's hospital in New York City. Flash-stepped there, handy, huh?

Oh and ya: New tags! We have the “Minor Character Death”, the "Major Character Death and Rebirth", the “excessive use of swear words” and the “excessive use of blood”. Oh jolly, can't wait to lose like all my kudos-givers.

Kaneki's regeneration factor came in pretty handy, he could leave the hospital after two days only. And since it was Sunday when he was released and the family didn't have anything planned out yet, they decided to go home. When he and Hide got out of the hospital, he first realized that they weren't in LA anymore. Hide must have used all his stamina's remainder after the fight to teleport them both to NYC. “Since we're here anyway, 'Neki” Hide started, grabbing Kaneki's hand, “We should go visit the Quinx!” Hide shouted and took Kaneki's sleeve.

“Quinx?” Kaneki was confused. “Just some orphans who built up a small organization on their own, you'll love them!” Hide explained, all the way leading Kaneki through the city. “Hide?” Kaneki waited for Hide to turn around, “Hide, why are we not flash-stepping there?” Hide raised an eyebrow. “Didn't you have a TV in there? Seen the news?” Kaneki scratched the back of his head, unconsciously acting very Hide-esque.

“So this is what happened. The day after the Reaper's meeting, they declared war on the humans and Angels. The International Allied Users' Forces were formed. Actually, it's already pretty huge, but there are almost no grown-up Users alive so our group consists of mainly juveniles.” Because of the Iron Knights, most Users died before the age of forty. “Our HQ is actually also the Quinx' home, they call it the château. The war is still very local, it's only really started in Russia, Japan, Spain, South Africa and India. The US are on the verge, almost every country except for the EU and Japan have decided to fight with the Iron Knights, only those two want to fight with the IAUF.” Hide briefed him, while walking alongside Kaneki, guiding him towards a giant house, a suburban home. They must have walked quite a distance without either of them realizing.

“Oh ya, also, I am in the Top Four of the IAUF, together with Juuzou and do you remember that cute waitress at the café we ate at? The one I flirted with briefly?” Kaneki nodded. “Well, her name is Touka.” Kaneki nodded again, eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly and he shot a glance at his boyfriend. “Oh the fourth spot? It's still free, nobody had wanted to take it as of yet.” Hide explained. “But if we are only kids, then how do you think we can compete with the Iron Knights?” Kaneki asked. “Well, we have the Demons and Angels on our side, so we don't really participate in fights … yet. But when the war comes too close to our forces, they only fight as back-up.” Hide crossed his arms behind his head.

“I take it that was a promise made by our allies? By the way, who are our allies? Our enemies?” Kaneki strode behind Hide, who now entered an eight-digit code into a small pad next to the door. “We'll explain once we're at the conference table. Also, stay close to me. Traps.” Hide walked straight towards a door, turned its knob and then walked three steps away from it. The door swung open, revealing a glistering hole behind it. The whole looked like it led to the end of the universe, a worm hole.

“Who created this?” Kaneki asked fascinated. “Our french teacher, Tsuki … Tsuki-something. You remember how he opened his bedroom door on out first day, it leading to the class room? Well, this one leads into a giant volcano, the Stromboli in Italy.” Kaneki smiled. A door leading into a volcano was a very Hide-esque idea. “It was my idea” Hide added and Kaneki laughed. “I figured” he said, “but how are we going to pass this?” Hide knelt down, faced the floor and touched it with one hand. “Ouvert le portal pour tournesol et bandeau d'œil, s'il vous plaît!” he said, French for “Please open the portal for Sunflower and Eyepatch”.

“Your codename is Sunflower?” Kaneki chuckled. “Hinami proposed the name and it's cute, okay? Yours is Eyepatch, no better!” Hide crossed his arms and pouted. “Why is that?” Kaneki was cofused. “Didn't you have a mirror in the hospital?” Hide deadpanned. Kaneki shook his head. “Well, apparently, your weird red and black eye stayed active, no matter what they tried. But at least they managed to get your hair black again, it was a pretty close call.” Hide slowly scratched the back of his head. “And you mean I am wearing an eyepatch right now?!” Kaneki yelped. “Yes, but it does look cute!” Hide ruffled Kaneki's hair.

“That's weird, I don't even feel it” Kaneki reached up and felt the soft silk against his fingers. “Of course you wouldn't, it was made with Juuzou's threads. But don't worry, it's white and not red.” Hide grinned. “Now, let's get going, we can't just stand here all day, the portal's gonna close in ten seconds.” Hide took Kaneki's hand and stepped into the portal. The next second they stood in a big hallway, rooms going left and right. “This are the dorms. We got one together, cheer!” Hide opened a door and stepped in the room.

It was comfortable, but bare. There was a double bed, Kaneki almost asked if Hide had specifically asked for one. “Who pays for all this?” Kaneki asked, jaw dropping. “The EU and Japan, why? We are their special military unit, of course they'd pay.” Hide said, slowly pushing Kaneki's jaw back up. “Military?” Kaneki asked. “Yes, they don't want to use their real forces, they wouldn't stand a chance against the Iron Knights.” Kaneki nodded. His neck was already strained from all the nodding he'd done today and he was sure that he would be nodding even more.

“Okay, now come. We gotta meet up with the guys, okay?” Hide and Kaneki walked back out of the room, Kaneki catching a glimpse of his duffle bag under the bed. “The guys?” Kaneki asked him, puzzled expression on his face. “Yes, the Leaders, the other two Top Four, Banjou and Hina!” Hide chimed. “In that order?” Kaneki chuckled. Instead of answering, Hide pushed open the door they entered the hallway with, standing in the château again, Hide walking up to another door, opening it, entering another eight-digit code and a hand scanner. Then he scanned his retina, gesturing for Kaneki to follow him through.

When they stepped into the room, a big round table and a whiteboard in it, they saw the IAUF's leaders. On the one side of the table sat Tsukiyama, the boys' math teacher – Yomo? Bomo? Which was it again – and an unreasonably upset-looking hazelnut brown haired boy. Kaneki remembered him from school, he was called Nishio Nishiki. On the other side sat Touka, looking at her phone and Juuzou, who was playing with the thread at his lip. “Oh thank the Light, the Sunflower and his little boyfriend finally decided to show up!” Nishio bitched at them. “Drop the attitude, Nishi-dipshit!” Touka shot at him. “Please, all of you, calm down, we got to welcome Kaneki fittingly.” Hide tried to calm them. Grudgingly, they both sat back down.

“Why is he even here? Seriously …” Nishio turned his eyes towards the ceiling. “Take a wild fucking guess, will ya?” Touka snapped. “Nagachika? Would you care to enlighten the rest of us?” Yomo said in a bored tone. “Sure thing. I brought Kaneki here to ask if he should become the missing member of the Top Four!” Hide turned around to his friend, who was drained of all color. “And why would you propose for Mr Kaneki to be placed in such a position?” Yomo asked again. “Because he is insanely strong, you should know as his teachers!” Hide looked at the two men.

“Indeed, Kaneki has shown some decent enough skill. But why is he fit to be part of la crème de la crème, Nagachika?” Tsukiyama said with his french tick. “I think we should decide with a little fight, right? That's the rules, you get in if you manage to kick another of the Top Four's butt. So, who will be the lucky someone to fight against Eyepatch?” Nishio licked his lips.

“You can't just let Kaneki fight against his allies! He just came out of the hospital!” Hide yelled at Nishio. Kaneki placed his hand on Hide's shoulder. “It's okay, Hide. Let me do this, okay?” Kaneki's voice was stern. Hide looked his boyfriend in the eye, seeing the resolve. “I still don't know why you would want me, but if it's you, I'll definitely try to fulfill your wish.” Kaneki smiled. “Oh please just kill me already, dear Lord” Nishio exclaimed. “I'm called Touka, but I like the ring you put to my name” the purple-haired girl punched Nishio straight in the face. “Okay, any volunteers?” Kaneki asked. Hide looked at him in awe.

Juuzou eagerly jumped up and volunteered. Touka and Hide gladly accepted that. Tsukiyama opened a door, saying it lead to a training ground. Juuzou jumped into the void, Kaneki being pushed in with the words “It's not going to kill you, I hope” by Touka. Then they stood in a gym hall, floor covered in tatami mats. “This room is in Germany, you have dix minutes, I can't hold up the connection any longer.” Tsukiyama's voice sounded from the door. “Alons-y!”

Juuzou spun a thread in between his fingers, laying it out in a pentagram shape in a matter of seconds before Kaneki even realized that the fight already started and he was standing square in the middle of the Devil's trap. Juuzou grinned mischievously. “Come on, demon boy, escape!” he mocked, but Kaneki couldn't even move an inch. “This fight is boring, you know~” Juuzou nibbled at the thread under his eye.

Kaneki gritted his teeth, moving his right arm with great effort. Juuzou's eyes narrowed. “How the hell are you moving?” he asked, confused. Kaneki grinned, moving his right arm up to his mouth. “I can't possibly let Hide down, now can I?” Kaneki moved his thumb to his mouth, opening it and furiously biting down on the digit. Blood splattered on his face as his hair instantly whitened, power streaming through him and making him able to move his hands and arms freely. He constructed his sword and cut through the thread, the trap breaking. The sword dissolved and the gun appeared behind Juuzou. “Oh, I will use tranquilizer bullets, wouldn't wanna hurt you, doll face!” Kaneki's white-haired personality took over and he shot a series at Juuzou, the boy dodging them by inch's means.

Juuzou shot a thread at Kaneki, who dodged and let it fly past him. The red string connected with the wall and just as Kaneki shot a new salve at Juuzou, the boy retracted it back to his hand, shooting himself across the room. Kaneki constructed the shield, levitating himself in the air. Juuzou lunged after him, one of the gun's bullets grazing his leg. The boy didn't seem to feel the pain. “I'm getting better at predicting your moves already!” Kaneki said, pulling out his switchblade and holding it in his left hand. The gun directed itself at Juuzou from behind, the only way the boy could escape was directly forward, right in Kaneki's direction.

Kaneki drew the blade over his left arm, blood pooling in front of him. He was nauseous for only a small moment. Then the second gun was constructed, Kaneki moving it so it and the other gun drove Juuzou into a corner. When the two guns were at point-blank, there was no other way for Juuzou to escape than to skyrocket, Kaneki anticipating that and already closing off that escape with the shield he was now no longer standing on.

Instead of moving as he had predicted, Juuzou fell to his knees, strings shooting out of his hands and flying at the wall behind his attacker. Kaneki couldn't pull his guns around quickly enough, the boy standing behind him already, shooting a string into both of Kaneki's feet and hands. Juuzou laughed maniacally, starting to move Kaneki like a marionette. “Stop that, motherfucker!” Kaneki screamed and used his guns to shoot through the strings, it dissolving. “You fell for my trap” Juuzou grinned, one eye bulging, one shrinking. “Trap?” Kaneki looked at his guns. They were wrapped in threads.

“Oh fuck you!” Kaneki yelled, his weapons rendered useless. He lunged his body towards Juuzou, the petite boy not anticipating the bodyslam and falling down under Kaneki, immobilized by the other's knees on his hands. Juuzou felt the air leaving his lungs, vision blurring. The petite boy kicked upwards with his knees, hitting Kaneki in the back, leaving his opponent gasping for air. Kaneki pulled out his switchblade and instead of pressing it onto his own body, he put it on Juuzou's throat. The boy under him grinned. “Tsukiyama, open the fucking door!” Kaneki couldn't switch back to his normal persona, his weapons were still tightly wrapped in thread, making it impossible for Kaneki to dissolve them.

“Pull your strings back, freak!” Kaneki hissed at Juuzou. “You get off me, I might consider!” Juuzou snapped back. Reluctantly, Kaneki retreated, Juuzou smiling at him. “Thanks. I really do think working with you will be hella fun!” Juuzou let out a devious smirk and pulled the threads back inside his palms, droplets of blood falling on the floor as the guns combusted with a squishy sound.

Juuzou opened the door, while the now black-haired Kaneki gasped from the anemia. His white-haired personality didn't have any problem with using an unhealthy amount of blood, while it rendered the original, the real Kaneki useless several seconds after the fight. That would come bite his ass some time in the future.

When the two boys went back to the meeting room, they found that a big TV screen was fixed against a wall. “Oh my god Kaneki that was hella awesome like PSYCH!” Hide jumped from his chair, high-fiving a thoroughly confused Kaneki. “Well yes, that was some impressive power. But if you go all crazy psycho on us in mid-battle, we could be in fucking deep shit.” Touka said, a mischievous smirk tugging at her lips.

“Okay, since Kaneki now officially is a Top Four, who wants to explain to him the whole situation?” Hide smiled at everyone. “Oh Monsieur Yomo, voulez-vous expliquer?” In French, Tsukiyama asked the teacher if he wanted to explain. Yomo shook his head slowly, but sighed in defeat. “Anyone got a pen, a sheet of paper?” he asked, voice almost lazy. Nishio took one out of his behind pockets an reached it to Yomo. Juuzou had his college block with him, it filled with surprisingly good sketches of animals, cats and giraffes especially.

Yomo ripped out a page and motioned for Kaneki to sit next to him. “Okay, our current situation looks kinda like this” he clicked the pen open and in a beautiful, cursive handwriting, wrote down “IAUF” in the middle. “Our allies are both Angels and Demons, also the EU and Japan have declared their sympathy and nourishment. The werewolves and werecats have declared they would fight alongside us on the battlefield. The hellhounds and canes domini are neutral, as are the spirits. The ghouls will fight with us as long as the Demons do.” Yomo paused, looking at Kaneki. Kaneki nodded in understanding. “So some of our allies are enemies themselves? Like the Demons and Angels? The unholy and holy dogs and the cats?” Kaneki asked, one eyebrow raised expectantly.

“That's right, but they have decided to let their quarrels rest for the time being, since it's war and shit” Nishio butted in, repositioning his glasses and shooting a “Holier-than-thou” kind of glance at Kaneki. “Right, of course. So every User's race has either declared to help or ignore us?” Kaneki wondered about that. It was exactly like the Reaper's had predicted, complete with the name and such. It made him wonder if they maybe even planned this organization, which lead him to the thought who even funded it.

“That's correct. The only disputants we have are the Iron Knights and almost every country in the world, who fight together in the Russo-American Conference, the USAC. At this point, it's nigh impossibly to stay neutral, except for Switzerland, Kenya and Paraguay, every country fights in the USAC. Only the European Union and Japan have declared their official support for us.” Yomo said, repeating what Kaneki heard three times already. “Yes, I have realized that by now. But what about the UN? They must be working to stop the war, right?” Kaneki asked shocked. “They would, if they still existed. Their headquarters' destruction was the first war action the Demons and Werewolves fought together in.”

“Their HQ? Isn't that here, in New York?” Kaneki was confused, he couldn't have not noticed that. “It was. But it was reduced to mere residue now. The whole process of deconstructing them was forbidden from being broadcasted outside the US. The US' president will give an official statement tomorrow, our assassins will try killing him then.” Yomo said, without an emotion. “How could they sweep something that big under the rug? They must've killed almost everyone who'd been there, watching it, right?” Kaneki didn't comprehend. “They couldn't've. So everyone was bribed, threatened or, well, silenced.” Touka added to the conversation.

Hide was oddly quiet, Kaneki realized, but he could fell Hide's thumb moving in soft circles over his hand's back. “That's right. But now on to the topic of fighting. We, the IAUF, are mostly untrained in life-or-death combat situations. But we have a system allowing everyone to enlist as either backup, front or aerial fighter. Also, there is the group of us that will plan the battles out, that theoretically includes everyone in this room*. Then for those who absolutely don't want to fight, we have the option to stay absent from the battlefield. We give the promise no person that wishes not to fight won't have to participate in combat, and we try to stay truthful and sincere in that promise. Now, we won't issue you to make a fast decision, but …” Yomo was cut off by Kaneki raising his hand unsurely.

“Speak up, please. We are not in class anymore.” A hint of a smile played around Yomo's mien. “I want to request … being placed in the aerial combat squad” Kaneki glanced at Hide, whose thumb had stopped moving. Then Touka chuckled, Juuzou laughed. “Oh great, and we had just gotten used to you, oh bummer!” Juuzou mimicked Winnie the Pooh, still laughing. “You must understand the aerial fighters have the highest mortality rate, since nobody can really support them, also they are heavily under-accoutered.” Yomo stated, as if reading the weather forecast for London**.

“I understand, yes, but I found out I can use my abilities best when I'm up in the air, I can survey the situation more thoroughly and can plan out where to set up my weapons better. And I wouldn't need an airfighter or helicopter, since I can easily levitate off the ground on my own.” Kaneki said. “And I'm completely able to guard myself.” he added quietly. “Kaneki, please think this through more!” Hide insisted, picking up on the soothing motions over Kaneki's hand. “Please, I can't lose you, Ken. Not you.” Hide looked his boyfriend in the eye.

“Sorry Hide, but that is where I'll be of the most use. You'd know, right? You know that I have to go there. It's where I can protect everyone the best from!” Kaneki averted his gaze from Hide's, his human eye leaking tears while the Demon counterpart cried blood. Hide put his hands up and let them fall on Kaneki's shoulders, the black-haired flinching ever so slightly.

Everyone was silent after Kaneki's touching speech. It rendered even the loose-mouthed Tsukiyama and the ever bickering Touka and Nishio completely speechless. Until Yomo dismissed everyone only two minutes later, no one was able to choke out any words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Almost because Juuzou and Nishio usually don't attend the meetings.  
> **Oh, rain on Monday. Oh, rain on Tuesday. On Wednesday, guess what, rain. Thursday, hail. Fuck this city.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so you'll hate me for this but anyway. Here you have it: Finally the Qs are introduced. Just to clarify, they are not the executives of the IAUF, they are more like that nice friend on whose couch you can crash when your s/o threw you out. See where I come from? Great.
> 
> But the Quinx lead a big company that produces utensils for Users. They always tried to stay neutral in quarrels, but in this war, they took the position of the IAUF. Which is cool, they still have their institution that produces potions and shit.
> 
> 'nother thing I should tell you: On the first floor (American) or Ground Floor (normal English) of the château, Tsukiyama has connected his doors. On the second / first floor, the Quinx have their rooms.

“Hey, Kaneki! You should totally meet the Quinx!” Hide said as they stepped out of the meeting room. Kaneki shrugged. “I guess” he said and inched closer to Hide. They walked through the empty hallways of the château. “Hide?” Kaneki not-so-subtly put his arm around Hide's shoulders, “Why don't they live with the rest of us behind Tsukiyama's weird dimension door?” Hide casually slung his arm over Kaneki's waist. “Ah, that's just because they live, like live, here, like, this mansion is their house and they decided to just resume living in their old rooms” Hide explained, motioned for Kaneki to move up the stairs.

Upstairs, there was another hallway, four rooms leading away from it, a bathroom at the end of the corridor. Hide knocked with his knuckles on every door, hesitating before knocking on the last. Behind him, the Quinx came out of their rooms. Kaneki turned around, his eye widening in surprise. The Quinx made a big secret out of their identities, which was intelligent regarding their position. But he would never've guessed them to be kids.

“Oh fuck's sake bro, thought we'd never see you again!” A giant, orange-haired boy ran over at Kaneki and Hide, tackled the latter in what could be described as a violent hug. “Chill, bro, it's only been like three months.” Hide chuckled, almost toppling over. “Three months I was together with Mr Broody Oreo, Miss NEET and the only one I can talk to like sometimes is Mr I will read until my eyes gouge out, you feel me, bro?” The orange-haired youth grinned, teeth sharp like a shark's.

Behind Shark-boy, a purple-haired individual kicked open his door and grunted towards Hide in a greeting. Hide nodded back at him, before bursting out laughing and managing to make the purple-haired boy smile. Shark-boy cackled. Kaneki figured the emo was the one skillfully dubbed as Mr Broody, but where the Oreo part came from, Kaneki didn't know. The guy shot Kaneki a “holier-than-thou”-glance and decided to ignore him. Kaneki decided he didn't like Mr Broody.

The last to get out of their room was a green-haired boy. He was wearing an eyepatch, pretty similar to Kaneki's own. He averted his gaze as soon as their eyes met, apparently he was very shy. The boy moved towards Hide and smiled at him. Hide smiled back, his radiant smile. Kaneki noticed there was no body contact between them. “So, Saiko's not come out of her room, what a surprise. Shall we go in there?” Hide asked, looking between the Quinx and Kaneki. “She hasn't come out there in three days and I highly doubt she's bothered to let fresh air in even once.” Mr Broody grunted.

“Ah come on, she's not that bad, now is she?” Hide opened the door to the room, immediately met with a stuffed animal flying towards his face. He caught it with ease, grinning into the pitch-black room. “Nice to meet you too, little Saiko!” Someone grunted from within the room, making Hide and Shirazu chuckle. “I will get her outta there, wait for me!” Hide stepped in the room. The noises that could be heard were hard to describe, it sounded like a feeble attempt to make a slightly overweight cat stop eating on the glasstable.

When Hide finally emerged from the room, he had three scratch marks across his face. On his back was a blue-haired girl, long ponytails sticking out from behind her head. They were both grinning. “Bro, what the heck did you in there? Kill a dolphin? Must've put up a helluva fight, bro!” Orange yelled and slung an arm across Hide's shoulders.

“You know that Hide is not here on vacation, guys.” Broody destroyed the mood. “Hide, and his little” cue a mix of a sneer and a frown, “friend here are two of the Top Four of the weird abundance of Users we have assembled in our own home.” Kaneki decided he really needed to know the Qs names. “You call the IAUF weird, as the main weapon and potion deliverer?” Hide chuckled, “Which is why, by the way, we need to get going. The others gotta wait for us already!”

“Others? Is there a meeting again?” the girl sighed. “Saiko” Kaneki made a note to remember the name the green-haired boy just said, “the last meeting was three days ago.” Saiko snorted. “Seriously? I wondered why I was so tired, I haven't slept for three days.” Hence the dark shadows under her eyes. “Kaneki” Hide said and put his right hand on Kaneki's left shoulder, “I think you should know something about the Qs.” Hide waved at Mr Broody. “Are you sure about this, Hide?” Hide nodded.

Broody leaned forward and got uncomfortably close to Kaneki's face. “We are all one being” Broody said. Kaneki cocked his head to the side and looked at Broody, to the green-haired boy, the orange-haired boy, the blue-haired girl and back to the purple-haired guy. “How can that be? I thought there was no such thing as cloning.” Even though duplicating abilities were not unheard of, those doppelgängers were never able to actually form an own character. “Not like that, idiot” Broody looked at Hide, “Why does he need to know anyway?” Hide rolled his eyes, “Everyone in the command room knows, so it's just fair. See, 'Neki, what Urie” Another name to remember, “wanted to say is they are all different aspects of an extremly strong User. That User would be stronger than even the Reapers or the Archangels, it would be on the same level as The Light and The Darkness.”

“The same level? That is insane!” Kaneki's eyes widened, “That would mean we could beat every party in this war and end it fast!” Hide shook his head, remorse on his face. “It's not that easy. That User, or The Aurora as we call it, is such an instable entity it would fall apart after only one attack. And when it falls apart, the Qs are created. And they need at least twenty years between being pieced together and falling apart again.” Hide settled to explain. “So all we have to do is gather all the Archangels and Reapers in one place, summon The Aurora, kill all of them and then all that's left is to eliminate the minor threats.” Kaneki said.

“There may be one problem though” an adrogynous voice said. Kaneki turned around to see the green-haired boy speak. “Aurora can only be summoned at daybreak of equinox. I am Mustuki by the way.” The boy didn't extend his hand, but Kaneki was comfortable like that. “It's July 22nd now, so we have exactly three months till the Fall Equinox. Which leaves us not much time to make them all gather.”

“Let's talk about this further in the round-table-room, okay? Don't need anyone eavesdroppin', right, bro?” Hide sighed. “Bro, Shirazu, noone's gonna eavesdrop on us anytime soon, rest assured.” Now Kaneki had all the Qs names except for Mr Broody's.

The group made their way to the meeting room and when they arrived, almost everyone had already gathered. “Has Shitty-Neki been informed?” Nishiki asked in an obnoxious tone. “You'll stop callingn him...” Touka and Hide started at the same time, Kaneki interrupting them. “Yes, I have.” he stated. “And, any ideas?” Yomo asked. “I don't think I can” Kaneki started only to be silenced by a glare from Touka. “Any. Ideas. That was the question at hand!” she hissed. “I have, yes.” Kaneki reached to scrath the back of his neck. “We have to make the Archangels and Reapers fight each other, right?” he started. Yomo nodded. Even Tsukiyama was silent now.

“Now I thought, since they both are our fellows, we could start a full-blown attack on the Iron Knights. Then we make it look like we're losing ground so we'll call both of them in. While the Demons and Angels fight, our own forces retreat unseen.” Kaneki took a deep breath. “I thought about it on the way here. Demons and Angels are both very alike. They want all the “glory” in a fight to themselves. Now, when the enemy's lines have been thinned out enough, the higher-ups will order the minnutmen to fall back while they take the hardest and toughest enemies on headstrong. When this moment is reached, we tell them through fake spies that we have seen Angels killing Demons and vice versa. When they think their short-term ceasefire while fighting along us has ended, they'll start fighting each other.”

“I think I get it now. And while they are fighting each other, we ready The Aurora and attack them all.” Hide scratched his cheek. “That would not only stop the war, it would also kill a big part of our biggest enemies, right? The Iron Knights?” Kaneki nodded. “But we can't make it so obvious” Yomo joined the discussion, “we'll have to make it seem like it's a coincidence we're calling all the strongest Users for help on the only day we could kill them.”

Nobody had an idea what to do, until a feeble voice spoke up. Mutsuki proposed to use a special kind of gas that could make people forget about where and when they were. “A lot of young Users and humans use it to party, they call it Wolke Sieben(*). Party drug.” Saiko added. “Unfortunately, the route for the chemicals we need to get to produce is now controlled by Homeland Security and we have no means to get it over here.” the gloomy guy said.

“Homeland Sec? Come on, Urie, like they have any chance against Users! They don't even have anti-User weaponry, right?” Hide debated. Touka sighed. “Homeland Security has been developing a special PA system which they load on Jeeps and jam the Users' abilities. It's called Roadblock. No chance there.” she said.

“But doesn't that mean we'll just have to use classic weapons? Like machine guns?” Nishiki spoke. Juuzou fiddled with the string on his lower lip, “I think that could work! We could totally gun them down!” Juuzou grinned a little. “I have come up with a plan” Tsukiyama said and fixed his hair, letting the hand linger before his eyes a little for effect, “We could put an invisibility cloak around the truck we'll use to bootleg the chemicals past securité du pays natale. When the cloak is jammed by the amplifiers, we'll have people there, already opening fire at the officers.”

Kaneki was horrified when almost everyone nodded, slammed his hands on the table. “We can't just go ahead and kill them! They're still people, they just chose the wrong side!” he burst out. “I think Kaneki is right. We can't just go ahead and slaughter people. There must be another way.” Hide aided his best friend. “Oh what a surprise, Angel-boy helping out his demonic boyfriend.” Nishiki said. Touka slammed his face into the table. Then she yanked it back up by his hair. “I have an idea how we could do it without bloodshed. We go to the chemicals storage, bring a camera with us and let the weirdo take a good look at the inside. Then he'll set up a pathway for us through some door there. We'll just carry the stuff through that door, hm?”

Everyone nodded, except Nishiki. He wouldn't just accept a plan Touka had come up with. “Okay, Quinxs, we need the adress of the storage.” Hide turned to his friends. Shirazu whipped out his phone and put it on the table. A contact's information showed up. “They tapped the line, so we won't be able to contact them. You'll have to rob our own guys, and when they resist, don't kill them. Password is “Wer Feuer frisst, scheißt Funken(**).” Urie said.

“What kind of language is that even? And how can you say that without twisting your tongue?” Touka spoke up. Kaneki just nodded. “Wer Feuer frisst, scheißt Funken.” he repeated. Tsukiyama clicked his tongue. “We should vote for who'll go to pick the chemicals up. I think we'll need Kaneki, who seems to be the only one who's able to speak l'allemand. I think Hide should go with him.” Yomo shook his head. “No, we need someone who can drive a truck. That's why I think one of us two should go with him, Mister Tsukiyama.”

In the end, it was voted that Kaneki and Yomo should move out to bring the chemicals to a laboratory the Qs owned. Tsukiyama had already seen it and could set up a portal there. That night, nobody really slept well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *=a wordplay. Wolke is German for “cloud” and the drug is a gas. “Auf Wolke Sieben sein” means “to be in high spirits, be in love”.
> 
> **=German idiom, literally: “Who eats flames will shit sparks.”, meaning: “Who lives by the sword will die by the sword.”


	9. Chapter 9

Okay so you'll hate me for this but anyway. Here you have it: Finally the Qs are introduced. Just to clarify, they are not the executives of the IAUF, they are more like that nice friend on whose couch you can crash when your s/o threw you out. See where I come from? Great.

But the Quinx lead a big company that produces utensils for Users. They always tried to stay neutral in quarrels, but in this war, they took the position of the IAUF. Which is cool, they still have their institution that produces potions and shit.

'nother thing I should tell you: On the first floor (American) or Ground Floor (normal English) of the château, Tsukiyama has connected his doors. On the second / first floor, the Quinx have their rooms. 

“Hey, Kaneki! You should totally meet the Quinx!” Hide said as they stepped out of the meeting room. Kaneki shrugged. “I guess” he said and inched closer to Hide. They walked through the empty hallways of the château. “Hide?” Kaneki not-so-subtly put his arm around Hide's shoulders, “Why don't they live with the rest of us behind Tsukiyama's weird dimension door?” Hide casually slung his arm over Kaneki's waist. “Ah, that's just because they live, like live, here, like, this mansion is their house and they decided to just resume living in their old rooms” Hide explained, motioned for Kaneki to move up the stairs.

Upstairs, there was another hallway, four rooms leading away from it, a bathroom at the end of the corridor. Hide knocked with his knuckles on every door, hesitating before knocking on the last. Behind him, the Quinx came out of their rooms. Kaneki turned around, his eye widening in surprise. The Quinx made a big secret out of their identities, which was intelligent regarding their position. But he would never've guessed them to be kids.

“Oh fuck's sake bro, thought we'd never see you again!” A giant, orange-haired boy ran over at Kaneki and Hide, tackled the latter in what could be described as a violent hug. “Chill, bro, it's only been like three months.” Hide chuckled, almost toppling over. “Three months I was together with Mr Broody Oreo, Miss NEET and the only one I can talk to like sometimes is Mr I will read until my eyes gouge out, you feel me, bro?” The orange-haired youth grinned, teeth sharp like a shark's.

Behind Shark-boy, a purple-haired individual kicked open his door and grunted towards Hide in a greeting. Hide nodded back at him, before bursting out laughing and managing to make the purple-haired boy smile. Shark-boy cackled. Kaneki figured the emo was the one skillfully dubbed as Mr Broody, but where the Oreo part came from, Kaneki didn't know. The guy shot Kaneki a “holier-than-thou”-glance and decided to ignore him. Kaneki decided he didn't like Mr Broody.

The last to get out of their room was a green-haired boy. He was wearing an eyepatch, pretty similar to Kaneki's own. He averted his gaze as soon as their eyes met, apparently he was very shy. The boy moved towards Hide and smiled at him. Hide smiled back, his radiant smile. Kaneki noticed there was no body contact between them. “So, Saiko's not come out of her room, what a surprise. Shall we go in there?” Hide asked, looking between the Quinx and Kaneki. “She hasn't come out there in three days and I highly doubt she's bothered to let fresh air in even once.” Mr Broody grunted.

“Ah come on, she's not that bad, now is she?” Hide opened the door to the room, immediately met with a stuffed animal flying towards his face. He caught it with ease, grinning into the pitch-black room. “Nice to meet you too, little Saiko!” Someone grunted from within the room, making Hide and Shirazu chuckle. “I will get her outta there, wait for me!” Hide stepped in the room. The noises that could be heard were hard to describe, it sounded like a feeble attempt to make a slightly overweight cat stop eating on the glasstable.

When Hide finally emerged from the room, he had three scratch marks across his face. On his back was a blue-haired girl, long ponytails sticking out from behind her head. They were both grinning. “Bro, what the heck did you in there? Kill a dolphin? Must've put up a helluva fight, bro!” Orange yelled and slung an arm across Hide's shoulders.

“You know that Hide is not here on vacation, guys.” Broody destroyed the mood. “Hide, and his little” cue a mix of a sneer and a frown, “friend here are two of the Top Four of the weird abundance of Users we have assembled in our own home.” Kaneki decided he really needed to know the Qs names. “You call the IAUF weird, as the main weapon and potion deliverer?” Hide chuckled, “Which is why, by the way, we need to get going. The others gotta wait for us already!”

“Others? Is there a meeting again?” the girl sighed. “Saiko” Kaneki made a note to remember the name the green-haired boy just said, “the last meeting was three days ago.” Saiko snorted. “Seriously? I wondered why I was so tired, I haven't slept for three days.” Hence the dark shadows under her eyes. “Kaneki” Hide said and put his right hand on Kaneki's left shoulder, “I think you should know something about the Qs.” Hide waved at Mr Broody. “Are you sure about this, Hide?” Hide nodded.

Broody leaned forward and got uncomfortably close to Kaneki's face. “We are all one being” Broody said. Kaneki cocked his head to the side and looked at Broody, to the green-haired boy, the orange-haired boy, the blue-haired girl and back to the purple-haired guy. “How can that be? I thought there was no such thing as cloning.” Even though duplicating abilities were not unheard of, those doppelgängers were never able to actually form an own character. “Not like that, idiot” Broody looked at Hide, “Why does he need to know anyway?” Hide rolled his eyes, “Everyone in the command room knows, so it's just fair. See, 'Neki, what Urie” Another name to remember, “wanted to say is they are all different aspects of an extremly strong User. That User would be stronger than even the Reapers or the Archangels, it would be on the same level as The Light and The Darkness.”

“The same level? That is insane!” Kaneki's eyes widened, “That would mean we could beat every party in this war and end it fast!” Hide shook his head, remorse on his face. “It's not that easy. That User, or The Aurora as we call it, is such an instable entity it would fall apart after only one attack. And when it falls apart, the Qs are created. And they need at least twenty years between being pieced together and falling apart again.” Hide settled to explain. “So all we have to do is gather all the Archangels and Reapers in one place, summon The Aurora, kill all of them and then all that's left is to eliminate the minor threats.” Kaneki said.

“There may be one problem though” an adrogynous voice said. Kaneki turned around to see the green-haired boy speak. “Aurora can only be summoned at daybreak of equinox. I am Mustuki by the way.” The boy didn't extend his hand, but Kaneki was comfortable like that. “It's July 22nd now, so we have exactly three months till the Fall Equinox. Which leaves us not much time to make them all gather.”

“Let's talk about this further in the round-table-room, okay? Don't need anyone eavesdroppin', right, bro?” Hide sighed. “Bro, Shirazu, noone's gonna eavesdrop on us anytime soon, rest assured.” Now Kaneki had all the Qs names except for Mr Broody's.

The group made their way to the meeting room and when they arrived, almost everyone had already gathered. “Has Shitty-Neki been informed?” Nishiki asked in an obnoxious tone. “You'll stop callingn him...” Touka and Hide started at the same time, Kaneki interrupting them. “Yes, I have.” he stated. “And, any ideas?” Yomo asked. “I don't think I can” Kaneki started only to be silenced by a glare from Touka. “Any. Ideas. That was the question at hand!” she hissed. “I have, yes.” Kaneki reached to scrath the back of his neck. “We have to make the Archangels and Reapers fight each other, right?” he started. Yomo nodded. Even Tsukiyama was silent now.

“Now I thought, since they both are our fellows, we could start a full-blown attack on the Iron Knights. Then we make it look like we're losing ground so we'll call both of them in. While the Demons and Angels fight, our own forces retreat unseen.” Kaneki took a deep breath. “I thought about it on the way here. Demons and Angels are both very alike. They want all the “glory” in a fight to themselves. Now, when the enemy's lines have been thinned out enough, the higher-ups will order the minnutmen to fall back while they take the hardest and toughest enemies on headstrong. When this moment is reached, we tell them through fake spies that we have seen Angels killing Demons and vice versa. When they think their short-term ceasefire while fighting along us has ended, they'll start fighting each other.”

“I think I get it now. And while they are fighting each other, we ready The Aurora and attack them all.” Hide scratched his cheek. “That would not only stop the war, it would also kill a big part of our biggest enemies, right? The Iron Knights?” Kaneki nodded. “But we can't make it so obvious” Yomo joined the discussion, “we'll have to make it seem like it's a coincidence we're calling all the strongest Users for help on the only day we could kill them.”

Nobody had an idea what to do, until a feeble voice spoke up. Mutsuki proposed to use a special kind of gas that could make people forget about where and when they were. “A lot of young Users and humans use it to party, they call it Wolke Sieben(*). Party drug.” Saiko added. “Unfortunately, the route for the chemicals we need to get to produce is now controlled by Homeland Security and we have no means to get it over here.” the gloomy guy said.

“Homeland Sec? Come on, Urie, like they have any chance against Users! They don't even have anti-User weaponry, right?” Hide debated. Touka sighed. “Homeland Security has been developing a special PA system which they load on Jeeps and jam the Users' abilities. It's called Roadblock. No chance there.” she said.

“But doesn't that mean we'll just have to use classic weapons? Like machine guns?” Nishiki spoke. Juuzou fiddled with the string on his lower lip, “I think that could work! We could totally gun them down!” Juuzou grinned a little. “I have come up with a plan” Tsukiyama said and fixed his hair, letting the hand linger before his eyes a little for effect, “We could put an invisibility cloak around the truck we'll use to bootleg the chemicals past securité du pays natale. When the cloak is jammed by the amplifiers, we'll have people there, already opening fire at the officers.”

Kaneki was horrified when almost everyone nodded, slammed his hands on the table. “We can't just go ahead and kill them! They're still people, they just chose the wrong side!” he burst out. “I think Kaneki is right. We can't just go ahead and slaughter people. There must be another way.” Hide aided his best friend. “Oh what a surprise, Angel-boy helping out his demonic boyfriend.” Nishiki said. Touka slammed his face into the table. Then she yanked it back up by his hair. “I have an idea how we could do it without bloodshed. We go to the chemicals storage, bring a camera with us and let the weirdo take a good look at the inside. Then he'll set up a pathway for us through some door there. We'll just carry the stuff through that door, hm?”

Everyone nodded, except Nishiki. He wouldn't just accept a plan Touka had come up with. “Okay, Quinxs, we need the adress of the storage.” Hide turned to his friends. Shirazu whipped out his phone and put it on the table. A contact's information showed up. “They tapped the line, so we won't be able to contact them. You'll have to rob our own guys, and when they resist, don't kill them. Password is “Wer Feuer frisst, scheißt Funken(**).” Urie said.

“What kind of language is that even? And how can you say that without twisting your tongue?” Touka spoke up. Kaneki just nodded. “Wer Feuer frisst, scheißt Funken.” he repeated. Tsukiyama clicked his tongue. “We should vote for who'll go to pick the chemicals up. I think we'll need Kaneki, who seems to be the only one who's able to speak l'allemand. I think Hide should go with him.” Yomo shook his head. “No, we need someone who can drive a truck. That's why I think one of us two should go with him, Mister Tsukiyama.”

In the end, it was voted that Kaneki and Yomo should move out to bring the chemicals to a laboratory the Qs owned. Tsukiyama had already seen it and could set up a portal there. That night, nobody really slept well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *=a wordplay. Wolke is German for “cloud” and the drug is a gas. “Auf Wolke Sieben sein” means “to be in high spirits, be in love”.
> 
> **=German idiom, literally: “Who eats flames will shit sparks.”, meaning: “Who lives by the sword will die by the sword.”


	10. Chapter 10

Touka's plan on how to transport the chemicals back to the IAUF's HQ was easy enough, but nobody had managed to come up with a plan on how to actually reach the storage site. It was decided later that Yomo and Kaneki should try and break through the roadblock as fast as possible and then contact the leaders. If they didn't do so after four hours tops they would be reported MIA, and after six hours DIA. In the morning, Kaneki had cried on Hide's shoulder until the fabric was damp.

None of them was ready to lose the other. Not so shortly after they had found their soulmates.

The road Kaneki and Yomo rode was rocky and dirty. The bus rocked left and right, shaking Kaneki's head and body. Yomo just sat in the driver seat and stared out front, he didn't budge whatsoever. The man just fixed his eyes on the roadblock set up by Homeland Security. It was still far enough away that the loudspeakers didn't jam their cloak yet, but too close to not be ready for that to happen. Yomo stopped the truck.

The older man stood up from his seat and walked to the back of the bus. “Touka told us how we could get the chemicals to HQ, but not how to get to the storage, right?” Yomo asked grimly. Kaneki reluctantly nodded. “But Tsukiyama's plan was good, we could just avoid them, right?” Kaneki asked hopefully. “The truck is not built for off-road rides. I wished this could've gone without bloodshed, but this is war, Kaneki. This is war and in war, you are no individual anymore. You are part of the side you chose.” Yomo took an MP5 from where he had hidden it before they left.

“You mean, war makes us stop being people, start being soldiers?” Kaneki teared up. “I really wished, Kaneki” Yomo took the gun and came up front again. “Say, Kaneki, have you ever heard of the Harakiri technique the Japanese used?” Yomo had the faintest ghost of a smile playing on his lips. “You don't mean you would steer the bus into the jammer, right?” Yomo put the gun up to his shoulder and checked the visor. “No, I mean for you” he poked the muzzle into Kaneki's chest, “to stear the bus straight into the group over there while I use the chaos that will surely ensue to kill off as many of the other soldiers as possible before hopping back in and let you drive me to the storage.” Yomo explained, completely serious.

Kaneki shook his head no. “I can't kill them like this!” he was petrified. “Can you steer a truck?” Yomo asked, looking Kaneki in the eye. “Theoretically yes” Kaneki reluctantly replied. “Kaneki. You can steer this truck into that group of” Yomo took a deep breath, “soldiers.” Kaneki slowly nodded. Yomo opened the door on his side and motioned for Kaneki to sit on the driver's seat. The raven-haired's boy barely just reached the pedals.

“Let's go, Soldier.” Yomo touched Kaneki's shoulder. “Soldier” Kaneki repeated and nodded. Yomo readied the gun and Kaneki closed the door. He sucked in a deep breath and pressed down on the acceleration pedal. The tires screeched and a siren went off as soon as the jammer made the cloak fail. Kaneki just held down the pedal and closed his eyes screaming. He heard the sound of something crashing against his windshield, opened his eyes.

A small taft of hair still stuck in the crack the head had left on the window. Blood slowly ran down the front of the truck, Kaneki had hit the group of people headstrong. He pulled the truck back a few yards and saw one soldier trying to escape his truck, slithering on the floor away from it. The soldier had no legs anymore. He crawled up to a house and reached for his gun with shaking fingers, cocking it and killing himself to ease the pain. Kaneki threw up through the window. His hearing faded out and he saw another fighter readying an RPG and yanked the car out of the line the grenade would take. He made a start backwards and then went full-on towards the soldier with the panzerfaust.

He saw the rocket-propelled grenade flying directly into his truck and knew he couldn't dodge it. He felt it crashing into his motorblock and the truck stopping dead in its tracks, flying backwards a little and him crashing headfirst into the airbag. He felt two ribs break and his hair whitening. The truck was still in the air when he had already freed himself from the airbag and seatbelt. When it landed, he ran out of the burning vehicle, saw the soldier readying his rocket launcher anew. He constructed his gun and let it fire a salve at the soldier. Then he levitated himself up with his shield and overviewed the situation. He saw Yomo firing salve after salve from his MP5 and the guns he stole from the fallen soldiers. He saw a military truck standing on the middle of the road, deserted. As soon as he had seen there were no more soldiers in hiding, he dove down to the truck and hotwired it.

He steered the truck to where Yomo was still fighting, opening the shotgun seat and letting Yomo jump in. “What happened to the other truck?” Yomo's voice was leveled, blood splattered on his face. “There was someone with a panzerfaust” Kaneki shook violently from the shock.He made the truck's engine roar and jumped up front.

They had left the roadblock station behind them when Yomo noticed the helicopter following them. When he looked closer, he saw two more following it. He stood up, completely calm and searched the back of the truck. “What happened, sir?” Kaneki's voice was still hoarse from screaming. “Helicopters. I'll go look if there's anything in this truck we can use.”

What he found was not perfect, but it would serve its cause. A heavy machine gun, style Browning M2, sat there. A belt with 200 shots of ammo laid next to it. Yomo took it and opened the back door of the pick-up, aiming the machine gun at one helicopter. “Concentrate on driving and don't freeze up when I shoot, soldier” Yomo let the belt click and fired the first salve, every single bullet hit and the copter spiraled to the ground.

A figure jumped out of the falling machine, opening a parachute. Deep in his heart, Yomo was glad not everyone had died. Even though his ability Perfect Zen* was practically made for precision shooting and killing, he didn't like doing it. He concentrated his senses on his eyesight and saw one copter abruptly turning around, flying backwards towards the base.

The teacher took the machine gun and focused his Perfect Zen on his hands and breathing. Nothing could make the next salve miss, not the uneven road and not the sidestepping flight pattern the pilot chose to use. Yomo shot the salve, perforating the cockpit and seeing he had hit both pilots straight in the forehead and the motorblock was destroyed. The crew hadn't suffered.

“Kaneki?” Yomo climbed up front again, situating himself in the shotgun seat. Kaneki sighed, “We pushed through, sir. Thank you.” Yomo allowed himself a smile. “You are a brave soldier. The bravest rookie.” Kaneki felt himself smile at the praise. They arrived at the chemical storage site without any more inconveniences.

Yomo picked the lock in a matter of seconds and they walked straight in. Focusing on his hearing sense, Yomo managed to locate three guards at the other side of the hall and raised a white flag they had found in the military vehicle. “Who are you?” A voicemasked person spoke up. “We need to pick something up for the Quinx.” Kaneki answered. Another – or was it the same – voice responded quickly, “The phrase, please.”

Kaneki sucked in a little air. “Wer Feuer frisst, scheißt Funken” he said and cringed, becoming aware of his Japano-American accent. The figures laughed. “Okay. Both of you, come over here.” The voicemasks were shut off and Kaneki was taken a little aback. He had heard the voice before. “How're you called, boy? And your father?” Kaneki raised his eyebrows. “I am Kaneki, and Yomo is not my father!” he said, a little blushing.

“Kaneki? Where have I heard that name before?” the three guards stepped into view. They all wore differently colored hoodies and sported gasmasks with numbers one, two and three. Kaneki gasped. He had seen a picture of those gasmasks in the kitchen in Banjou's apartment. He had seen Banjou looking at the picture and crying when he thought nobody saw him. He had heard Banjou sobbing only one word. “Where?”

“Where did you get those masks?” He said, venom in the voice of his white-haired self. Even Yomo hadn't foreseen that reaction. “What the hell? Your hair just!” one of the gasmasks spoke, a female voice.

“I think we should talk this through.” Yomo held Kaneki in a police armlock to stop him from lunging at the guards. “We've had these masks since we were born. The question is more, how do you know them?” A male voice adressed the question at Kaneki. “A picture. A friend of mine had a picture of people with those masks and he would at night look at it, crying. Asking himself “where” and” Kaneki's voice broke.

“Kazuichi? Was your friend's name Kazuichi Banjou?” The third gasmask asked, excitement in his voice. Kaneki nodded weakly and let his hair fade to black again. “He is” the gasmask's voice shaked withholding tears, “still alive?”

“I always knew he still lived! Somewhere peaceful, somewhere safe, where he didn't need us useless” hesitation in the woman's voice, “bodyguards” Kaneki's face lighted up in realization. He never asked Banjou for the story behind the photo, but he had looked at it closer one time, noticing it was actually a postcard. Written on it was only one word, three times.

Farewell Farewell Farewell.

“Enough time to catch up later, now we need to set up the connection with Tsukiyama's help.” Yomo called Tsukiyama and a minute later the man had set up a portal in the military truck's door. Kaneki and the gasmasks helped Yomo shove the barrels of liquids in the portal. Kaneki called Banjou. “You'll never guess who I met here, Banjou!” he said and shoved his phone into the hand of the female gasmask.

The talk the four people shared was sweet and full of inside jokes all cackled at. When it was time to leave, Kaneki asked the gasmasks to join the IAUF. They declined, surprisingly. “We can't leave this place. We're practically bound to it, see? If we were to leave it, it would cost our life” one of the men explained. “Why?” Kaneki was shocked. “After the incident” cue dramatic pause, “we didn't have anyone to serve anymore. And for our clan, that means to be punished. So we punished ourselves the only way we knew: Binding us to a place, not a person.”

With tears in his eyes, Kaneki had to wave his goodbyes. The gasmask crew and he did a group hug, just the way Banjou liked to hug Hinami, Hide and Kaneki at the same time so often. Kaneki cried when he arrived back home.

Kaneki and Hide were laying on their bed in their room, Kaneki's neck in Hide's lap, caged by Hide's legs and comfortably reading a book. Hide was playing on his Nintendo DS. After two more chapters, Kaneki had finished his novel. He laid the book on the nightstand and turned over, laying with his chest on Hide's and his lips mere inches away from his boyfriend's, meeting in a tender kiss.

That night, Kaneki didn't sleep well. All he could think about was the MAN without the legs, the PERSON with the panzerfaust, the GUY who he had smashed with his truck. At daylight, it was easy to pretend Yomo's words were true, that the PEOPLE he had killed were only soldiers. But at night, when he dreamt, he only saw their faces in pain. The real, honest pain of a PERSON losing their life.

Hide laid next to his boyfriend's twitching and twisting form. He must've been experiencing the worst nightmare, and all Hide could do was try to wake him up. But Kaneki wouldn't react, at some point eventually starting to sob in his sleep, body shaking and breaking Hide's heart. He stroked the hair out of Kaneki's forehead, sweat sticking the strands to it. Hide kissed Kaneki and finally he could feel the black-haired boy still and melt into his hand gently cupping Kaneki's cheek.

“It's okay, Ken. You are not alone, never believe you are” Hide muttered while Kaneki's eyes half-opened in the daze of being sleep-drugged. “I love you” Kaneki's voice was hoarse and his eyes puffy and red. “I love you too, Ken” Hide kissed Kaneki's nape, “Shower?” Hide knew that showers had always helped Kaneki when he felt ill or anxious. Kaneki nodded and they made their way to their bathroom.

Kaneki slept better caged in Hide's arms, breathing in Hide's smell. Hide wouldn't tell Kaneki about the giant bruse on his spine from where Kaneki's trashing form's elbow'd woken him up. They were allowed to sleep longer the next morning, but were eventually shaken awake by Hinami.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*) = Perfect Zen, the ability to focus your entire concentration on one or two senses. Can be used to enhance senses or completely stop the body from tremoring, also can make the User stop their breathing or heartbeat voluntarily for multiple minutes, depending on the level the User has acquired.
> 
> I have just realized this: I never told you the Ability's Hinami and Banjou have. Truth be told, I wanted to have you guess them, but since someone asked me whether they even had any, they do. They're both not suited for fighting, but Hinami is extremly good at absorbing information from anything she touches, sees or hears. But regarding her new age, she often doesn't find the words to tell people about the things she found out. Banjou is able to create matter from thin air, but every time he used his power, he loses a fraction of his sanity and memories. Out of fear of forgetting the gasmasks or hurting his friends when he turns insane, he never uses his power.
> 
> I love writing this story. I really do. I have a fuckbunch of ideas for it. Characters, plottwists, subplots and fights. But I get the feeling nobody actually likes reading it. Like, I have three comments, and almost 20k words. I'm not going to beg. But if anyone has constructive criticism, or just wants to show gratitude for writing the story or whatever, there is a comment box and it is open for anon. -hidekanede


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gee there's a blackout in my region today and I have no means to procrastinate writing the story anymore. Y'all were so cute and nice in the comments, and I'm awkward, and not good at saying thanks. Okay, so here goes nothing: Thanks for writing those beatiful comments and telling me that some have not abandoned my story despite the infrequent updates (which I am terribly sorry about, please pack away those ropes, I'm not into lynching). Also, as Ishida, I like foreshadowing.
> 
> Oh and yeah, I'll try to write dialogues in another form. Not like:
> 
> “blabla” said x. “bleble” y replied. “blublu” x chuckled.
> 
> But more like:
> 
> “blabla” said x
> 
> “bleble”
> 
> “blublu” chuckled x. / “blublu” x chuckled.
> 
> You'll get it when you read it. Tell me, what you think about it, please!
> 
> Now you go make sense out of that. While your beautiful minds are preoccupied (God I love pretentious words. Try to make Arima sound like a walking Thesaurus, y'noticed?), I'll go write this fic. Have fun(^-^)

Kaneki slowly blinked. He has actually slept through a whole night. He wasn't used to that after that road trip, some would call it killing spree, with Yomo two weeks ago. He looked at his side and saw Hide snuggled up against him. The blond boy had been a great help with what Kaneki's been through the last weeks. But Kaneki could see the dark shadows under Hide's eyes, Kaneki knew that he was the reason his boyfriend didn't get much sleep anymore. Kaneki was sure to have slept a long time, but when he looked at the radio alarm clock next to their double bed, he saw he'd only slept three hours. Still, that was more than the whole last week.

Hide's sleeping form was almost more beautiful than the awake and jumping Hide. Mouth slightly opened, hair disheveled and eyes closed he looked like an ancient Greek marbel statue. Beautiful and would forever be. Kaneki laid himself on his beck, throwing an arm over his eyes and sighing.

He got up without waking his boyfriend up and walked down the hall to the door. His feet were bare, the pitter-patter of them audible clearly, but he couldn't be bothered to put shoes on. He opened the door that would open to the Quinx' household. He stepped in the house and out in the open. He knew how exposed he was and he was enjoying it. Being out in the open, he could be shot by anyone who wanted to. And he felt good about it, he felt like he would've deserved the bullet. For the sins and vices he had commited, he felt like only the death sentencing would be adequate.

He walked a few steps and stopped in the middle of the street. He looked back at the Q's residence and smiled.Then he took off jogging, bare feet scraping open on the harsh asphalt of the streets and sidewalks. He smiled and put in his earbuds. He jogged to the city centre and watched as it came to life. He sat on top of a skyscraper, looking down at the people looking like ants.

He heard a door open behind him. Someone wearing a uniform of a private security company walked up to him. “Sir?” the man said. His voice was wavy, uncertain, “Sir, you are not allowed up here. Please give me your ID card, I must insist on you showing it. The new law, y'know.” Kaneki stood up and smiled at the guard. The man was young, probably just came out of training, and inexperienced.

“I've got no problem with that. I just needed to go and take a fresh swig of air.”

“Yeah, I understand. We live in turbulent times, right? It's like no one can trust anyone anymore. My neighbors were taken in by the Iron Knights, just yesterday. They said she was a spirit or something. But in my eyes, she was just the lovely old lady who baked cookies for our kids when they played in the garden.” The man teared up.

“Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss, Mister?”

“Take, Hirako Take. Weird name, I know.”

“Ken, Kan- Kanamouru” Kaneki lied. He couldn't just give this man his name. It must've been listed somewhere by now.

“Kanamouru, Ken. Y'know what, I'll trust you here. You seem like a nice guy, Kanamouru. Don't let this war take that away from you, please. God knows it's been taken from too many people by now.” Hirako scratched the back of his head. 

“Thank you a million, Mister Take.”

“Yeah, no big deal. We just gotta leave this roof. Getting chilly up here.” Take pointed at Kaneki's bare feet.

“We should.” Kaneki said and took out his switchblade, jumping off the roof and stabbing his head. The blood streaming out of the wound constructed his shield and he flew four blocks close to the Quinx' house. He landed and jogged back.

Take Hirako. Kaneki wouldn't forget him. The man had shown him that not all humans were against them, which was reassuring. Now, after his flight*, Kaneki hoped Take wouldn't change his mind. The man did seem nice. But he'd also shown him once again how everyone Kaneki'd killed up till now had been people, just like Take. Kaneki felt a sob in his throat. Hide waited for Kaneki on the porch. 

“Hey” Hide*s voice was hoarse from crying. He hugged his boyfriend closely.

 

“I love you” Kaneki whispered into Hide's nape, tears streaming out of his eyes.

“I love you too, Ken. I'll never leave you.” Hide stroked Kaneki's back and they stood for a long time. Then they heard the sirens. It wasn't the first time the police would drive past their house, but this time, they came to a stop right in front of the château. Two officers came out of the car, an African-American woman with a nice smile and an 80's-police series cliché cop walked up to them.

“Sorry to interrupt your moment” the woman said, she waved at the boys, “but we need to ask for your ID cards, neighbors have repeatedly reported to have seen people matching terrorist's profile's entering and leaving this house.”

“No problem” Kaneki said and fished for his card. He slid it over his fingertip, only papercutting deep enough to let two small droplets form in his hand. He moved them behind the officers' backs and into their car's motorblock, destroying every cable he could find. The car rumbled and smoke came out of it. Hide took Kaneki's hand to hide the already healed cut and pressed it reassuringly. The officers turned around in time to see the car bursting into flames.

“Oh shit, what the fuck is happening?” the man started loosing his cool. Kaneki and Hide faked flipping their shit pretty well. The officers took out their walkie-talkies, about to call command center to request a driver, when Kaneki lifted his hand, the one he hadn't cut.

“Officers?” he said, letting his voice shake, “would you like to borrow my car? You could use it to get back to HQ, where I could go pick it up in the afternoon.” Kaneki tried to make his smile convincing and not conniving. The officers smiled back.

“We would love to, it's so shameful to have to request a pick-up, y'know.” the woman laughed, “but would it really be okay with you two?”

“I have no plans for today, what about you?” Kaneki looked at Hide, who shook his head.

The officers thanked the boys for their help and Kaneki opened the garage. The military truck was still in it. As soon as the officers were inside, he closed the door again, Hide behind him.

“Boys?” the woman asked, reaching for her gun. Hide flashed behind her and her partner, took their guns and threw them under the military truck.

“Users, I should've guessed.” the walkie-talkie sent static noises.

“Pick it up” Hide said.

“Officer Morouge, reporting for duty?” she answered, still carefully aware of Kaneki and Hide.

“Status report on mission X71-5, if you would.” the machine blared.

Hide made a slit-throat gesture. She nodded and sighed into the machine's mic. Then she shot an apologetic look at her partner. She said, as soon as she could, “Targets are Users, officers in custody, over and out.”

Kaneki and Hide were too baffled to react. Then Kaneki took out his switchblade and pushed it against the skin on his arm. The officers went down on their knees. They knew their lives were going to be over soon. Hide reached over and took Kaneki's switchblade away. “Kaneki, look at them. They are not at fault. Let's leave them. The only crime they committed was choose the wrong side.” Hide looked down at the officers and spoke.

“I have just given you a second life. In the eyes of the government, you two are DIA. But here we see you're alive and kicking, so you could go and do whatever you want. You have a second chance. We don't want unnecessary bloodshed. Please use your second chance the way you want to. Go home, travel the world, go eat at your favorite restaurant. It's up to you.” Hide chuckled, “Also, dead people don't pay taxes” he grinned.

Hide walked out of the garage, calling Tsukiyama to set up a portal behind the door, briefing him of the situation. Kaneki took the guns with him. “Better safe than sorry” he said and put them in his back pockets. They were heavy and oppressive.

“Hide?”

“Yeah?”

“Have we just doomed everyone?”

“I don't think so. Tsukiyama said he'd break down the portals, only leave the front door connected to a place somewhere in Berlin.”

“That won't stop them from burning down the house and … Hide, we just destroyed the Quinx' home!”

“The Quinx have multiple châteaus, Kaneki. We had no other choice.”

“And the portals? Will Tsukiyama be able to reconstruct them?”

“He hopes so. Probably. I mean he's gotta, all my Backstreet Boys' CDs are in there!” Hide and Kaneki walked to the front door of the château. “It's not connected yet, so if we have anything we don't wanna lose, we should go grab it.”

“Hide?”

“Yeah?”

“As long as I have you, I won't need anything else.”

“Ken, you are my most precious treasure.”

“I love you, Hide”

“I love you, too, Ken. I love you!” Hide kissed Kaneki softly. The two boys walked into the château and into the door that would lead to the apartments. They decided it would be best to just let the other leaders stress about the how and what to do. They sat on their bed and Hide painted Kaneki's fingernails out of boredom. Hide was, unbeknownst to many, a true make-up magician**. When he was done and it had dried, Kaneki's black fingernails grazed over Hide's sensitive skin on his neck. Hide's phone vibrated, but he simply shut it off. Kaneki pushed his hands under Hide's shirt and pushed it up, over the blond's head. Then he rid himself of his own shirt, laying down and feeling Hide's chest against his own.

“Thank you”

“You're welcome, Kaneki”

Kaneki felt his eyes flutter shut and Hide's heartbeat quickly lulled him into a deep, dreamless sleep. Hide stroked his hands through his boyfriend's hair. He knew Kaneki didn't get enough sleep enough lately, not even for a demon and it was worrying him. After all that had happened to them that day, he also only wanted to lay down and fall asleep. And it wasn't even lunch time yet. Hide grabbed for his xBox controller and started the device. He thought back to the day, when they had met Eto the first time and how her laugh had them freezing up.

He shook away those thoughts and sat up. Kaneki was so tightly asleep his head simply fell in Hide's lap and he slept through it. Hide played an hour or so of Fallout 3 on mute before Kaneki woke up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his backhands, fists balled. Kaneki looked like a kitten. Like a very cuddelable kitten. Hide laid the controller to the side and tackled Kaneki in a hug.

“How long did I sleep?”

“Only one hour or so, it's time for lunch now. You don't sleep enough, y'know?”

“I know. It's not like I could control when I have nightmares, right?”

“I'll always be there for you when you wake up. Please don't scare me like this morning again, okay?”

“Yeah, I don't know why I even left the château. It was like I couldn't even think straight.”

“What did'cha do all morning until you invited two cops to our HQ?”

“Long story. Met someone on a rooftop, had a nice talk and jumped off a skyscraper.”

“That probably sounded less weird in your head, right?”

“Indeed. I'm gonna go shower and then we can go grab some lunch, okay?”

“Sure, I'll wait here. Remember to put on a shirt when we go eat!” Hide laughed ferociously at Kaneki's blush, spreading all the way to his shoulders. Kaneki grabbed a shirt and pants from the wardrobe. He winked at Hide, walked to the bathroom door and, in a futile attempt to look suave, he let the door open. He walked straight up against it and stubbed his toe. Hide laughed and wheezed at Kaneki's deepening blush.

“That” he pressed out between laughs, “was unnecessarily dramatic!” Kaneki glared a dagger at him. It was less a dagger than a sowing needle, but the message got across. Hide threw his hands to the air and his laughter died out into chuckles, until it subsided. The door was still open, and with a smirk Hide entered the bathroom.

“Boys?” they heard Touka's voice from their bedroom. She did not sound amused. She sounded calm, like the eery calm before the storm. Hide stopped rubbing shampoo into Kaneki's scalp and sucked the air in sharply.

“No, Ni-shitty-o, I can't see'em. How about you look in the bathroom, idiot.”

“But what if they are, y'know, in there?”

Touka laughed hardly and pulled open the door. “They wouldn't dare after being responsible for burning down the Qs' house, not even they wou...” she stopped mid-sentence when she heard Hide and Kaneki, and a shower, now that she actually listened to the sounds in the bathroom. One of the best parts of being a Ghoul were the super-senses. That was also one of the worst parts, to be honest.

“Get the fuck outta there, idiots!” she yelled and kicked down the door. Kaneki squealed and Hide jumped, “And close the goodamn curtain, perverts!”

Hide and Kaneki dried up and saw a sticky note on the coffee table, when they exited the bathroom. It read “Meeting after lunch. Follow signs to lunch room. T”. Hide sighed.

“She will never forget that.”

“Positive aspects?”

“What?”

“You told me to always look at the positive aspects of every situation, remember?”

“Yeah, I don't see any here.”

“Not even you?”

“Not even me, no.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to comment, please. I've seen my favorite author Derek Landy use this style and I love it, but if you don't, tell me, please!
> 
>  
> 
> *= no pun inteded  
> **= stop thinkin' about Hisoka, the piece of shit clown. Yeah, clown, not magician, eat that, bitch.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I am so sorry I only post this today, but my laptop broke, outright broke. Screen's broken and it's kinda hard to type with a spiderweb cracking glass stains out of the display, so there's that. Also, I now use my mother's macbook and it's so hard to type on like wtf.
> 
> At any rate, here's wonderwall, uh, the new chapter.

"Dude, this place is like a fuckin' maze, how're we supposed to find that lunch room?"

"We could technically just follow the signs."

"I swear to God, Kaneki, you're just such a smart-ass like ugh."

"Like... ugh."

"Oh, can it!"

Hide pushed open the door that had lunch room written on it. To be fair, the marking was pretty small. But it was red. Hide pouted. Inside the room, they instantly found where Touka sat, mostly because she and Nishiki were the only ones there. Kaneki was surprised, no other leading member was at the table. Hide awkwardly sat down next to Nishiki, who scooted over two spots.

"You stay off me, Shitty-chika, we clear?"

"You could stop bitching, Ni-shitty-o!"

"And you could stay out of men's conversations, Touka!"

"Ran out of wordplays, Prin-shitty Darling?"

"Could we please focus" Kaneki mumbled and set down his elbows, sighing, "why are we even here?"

"Right, we've gotten an offer. A cease-fire treaty, to be exact" Touka said, scratching the back of her neck.

"By who? The Iron Knights?"

"Nope, it was the Angels. They have decided to stop killing off innocent people and rather ruthlessly slaughter all of the Demons. So much for the Angelic Vibe they're so proud of. Faith, Love and Hope." she tch-ed.

"The Angels? But weren't they the warmongers alongside the Demons? This seems fishy, right, Hide?"

"Yeah, I have a theory. But it doesn't quite fit them. Have we thought about this just being a possibility to gather us all at our HQ so they can kill all of us off in one, big swoop?"

"You're right, it isn't their style. More befitting would be a full-on attack on our forces while we're weak from fighting against the Demons' army, right?"

"Technically, yeah. But the cease-fire isn't the only thing that landed in the mail today, we also found this," she held up a small glass balloon filled with a green and a red liquid, intermingling, "and we all know what this little thing could do, right?"

"Is that really a Terroria?" Hide whispered.

"What the fuck is a shitty Terroria?" Nishiki butted in.

"Terroria are, simply put, bombs. They're not normal bombs, though, they're way more silent, way smaller, and way more effective. As soon as these two liquids become one, bright orange fluid, it explodes in six hours. There's no way to defuse them at that point." Kaneki offered an explanation.

"So how about we get it away from here? Good plan, let's drop it on the shitty Iron Knights, so they can deal with it!"

"They brought a letter with it. Look here: "I have a red button, I don't wanna press it, but you know, peace costs lives. This Terroria can destroy not only one city, one country, no, it would destroy an entire continent. An entire continent's life, vanished into black dust. Also, it triggers as soon as it leaves your HQ. Try getting out of America in six hours." and that's it, end of letter."

"Black dust?!" Nishiki jumped up.

"Terroria don't only explode, they only release a pressure wave of magic, compressed into a deadly melody. That melody is the song of a Reaper, paired with that of an Archangel. Each is relatively weak, could kill fifteen at once, but this here, compressed and mixed, kills a million, a billion or more in a matter of seconds, making them nothing than black dust."

"Who the fuck designs those what the fuck?!"

"As far as we know, there are three Terroria. One belongs to the Angels, one to the Demons and one was given to the clan of the Necromancers."

"But haven't the Necromancers vanished in one night?" Hide asked, shoulders shaking in fear.

"We still don't know what happened back then, but it's known that the Angels massacred them, brought them back to life using their own ability and made them into mindless elite killer platoons. At least we finally know what happened to their Terroria, right?" Kaneki wanted to cry.

"Situation is like that: We got the Angels, with their domini canes and the Demons with their hellhounds. All the others: dead, immobilized, decimated, neutral or on our side. You could say that it's 100:1:100, with us being the 1. And then we have the Iron Knights."

"I have the newest numbers" Touka said and grabbed a black pen from behind her ear. She draw two figures on the table: 700 million and 10 million. "The 700 is the remaining strength of the Demons, the ten is their death count. Incidentally, the almost exactly same numbers go for the Angels. Then we have two billion alive and 100 million dead or immobilized soldiers all over the world, we have one billion alive and 65 thousand dead or crippled Iron Knights."

"Our numbers look pretty bad in comparison: We have twenty million fighting and fifty thousand dead, hundred thousand wounded and twenty-five thousand immobilized." Kaneki aided her.

"So, in reality, our numbers look kinda like this: 700:20:700:2000:1000. That is way worse than I thought."

"But we have The Aurora, right? That could like destroy the Reapers and Archangels!"

"But even if those are gone, what do you think would happen? You know that The Light and The Darkness don't mingle with puny human business, but what if all of their strongest fighters were to die at once, what do you think would happen?"

"You don't mean, they wouldn't"

"Who wouldn't do what?" Tsukiyama's voice crept over Kaneki's shoulders. In a matter of seconds, his switchblade jumped into his hands and he almost stabbed Tsukiyama. Hide grabbed the creep's arm and jumped backwards just when Kaneki slashed out. They disintegrated the wall a little when they ran through.

"Shitty-Neki and his fuckboy are on edge, right, ow, fuck, not the elbow, ow!" Nishiki said and Touka twisted his arm. The other leaders came in, followed by Chie. Hide came strutting back with Tsukiyama strolling behind him. Everyone's face displayed shock.

"Would anyone care to explain what's happening here?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this is a very brief chapter, but as I said, this is my MOM's laptop and I'm not having any of that "Get off the PC and let me fill out Very Important Thing (tm). Sorry, but if you're seriously upset - I have a tumblr, and it's @x-hkde-x. So, please tell me whether or not you actually read this story there, okay? Luv y'all!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, A/N:
> 
> This is the first work I ever uploaded in English and even though it is my maternal language, it isn't my first. My first is _surprisingly_ German. And if you find any spelling, grammar or continuity errors, please tell me! I always strive to get better and yeah, I don't have a beta-reader.
> 
> Now, I need to have an honest talk here: What the fuck even is :re? What the fuck is going to happen in the next chapter? Will Suzuya make it? What even has happened to Shiro and Kuro? What the fuck did Hide foresee that surprised his boss and squad leader Marude?! Like. How intelligent is my sunshine boy? He's amazing.
> 
> And the last thing: Spoilers! for Arima vs Kaneki was voted 100% with a huge pool of answers (Thanks, Nazita, thanks) so something will happen, and you will cry, and Suzuya will do something that will make you upset. Really upset. *drops mic*

"Would anyone care to explain what's happening here?" Yomo asked.

"Well, Shitty-neki and..."

"Someone who isn't a completely hopeless idiot, please. Hide, pray tell?"

"Mister Tsukiyama made all of us jump out of our skin and our nerves are laying blank already, so Kaneki in the spur of a moment without thinking slashed his switchblade at Mr Tsukiyama here. And then Nishiki acted up like the big macho he is, so Touka twisted his arm. You know how those two are, right?"

Yomo glared a dagger at Tsukiyama and Nishiki and sighed, muttering something along the lines of "damn brats, too fuckin' old, ugh" and looked up at Touka.

"Have you at least told them the newest numbers? And our plan?"

"We were just comin' to the part with the plan, but yeah, they know the numbers - maybe if your friend Tsukiyama didn't just appear here out of who-knows-where again, I could've gotten to it already."

"Okay. Boys, listen up. We have a plan up our sleeves, how to deal with the deities and our enemies. But you also know about the Terroria, right? Greets'n'kisses. Anyway, we know how to defuse it - in theory. But none of us unexperienced and dumb forces can do it, it would need a luminary, a scientific genius. And we know one." Yomo stepped back and gestured for Tsukiyama to lay down a piece of paper with the picture of a gray-haired man, warm brown eyes smiling up from the table.

Kaneki didn't hesitate a second a smashed his knife right in the man's face. "No. Not him, there's no way I'm fighting alongside him! We can't trust him, nobody can trust him! He's not a friend, he's a monster!"

"Dr. Kanou is the second-best bomb expert dans le monde entier, he even worked alongside Dr. Shiba!"

"But he made me what I am! He made me a monster! He is sick, twisted and brutal! He doesn't fear anything, his only way to deal with something bad is to create something even worse and let that thing do his dirty work!" Kaneki's eyes were widened in horror and he saw the sweet, faint smile on Kanou's face cut in half by his blade. He fell back into his chair, not even had noticed when he'd stood up. He breathed hardly.

Nobody was able to say a word for a long time before Hide glanced around the table and saw everyone looking at the knife in Kanou's face. He pushed his chair back, wincing at the screeching sound and slowly walked out the room, holding Kaneki's hand. As soon as they were out of sight, he picked his boyfriend up and flash-stepped to their dorm. They collapsed on the bed and Hide stroked Kaneki's hair back, holding him close.

"When did this all took a turn for the worse? We were socially awkward students, mad in love with each other, in a good school a few weeks ago, Hide. When did all of this" Kaneki motioned around the dorm, "happen?"

Hide shook his head. He peppered a kiss on Kaneki's head and felt the boy curl up against him. "When all o' this is over, I'm gonna marry you. I'm gonna propose to you in front of everyone, Hina, Banjou, Touka, damn, even Yomo. Imma carry you all the way from the church till home. When all of this war is over..." Hide lifted Kaneki's chin and looked him in the eyes, "let's go home." Kaneki leaned up and kissed Hide. "You dork" he laughed, voice still hoarse from crying. "Is that a yes?" Hide grinned.

"Yes, yes I want to marry you, Hide. I want to go home with you!"

Over at the lunch break room Touka, Nishiki, Tsukiyama and Yomo started discussing.

"I told y'all can't trust Kanou! No matter how nice his smile, I told ya!"

"Shut it, shitty dumbass! I say we get the doctor, get him all set up and when he worked his mojo with the bomb we let Kaneki have his way with 'im!"

"Both of you, calmato. I say we kidnap the doctor, force him to make the Terroria usable and then dispose of him without ever having little Kaneki worry about it. But that's only mon avis."

"I agree with Tsukiyama. You two are hot-headed kids, stronger than the average kid but still kids. No offense, but you often miss the point of view we adults have."

"I say we let it be decided with a vote. Get Juuzou over here and it's up."

"I will go look for him. Here in two hours we meet again." Yomo stood up. Everyone nodded.

Juuzou walked down an aisle in a huge office building. He wore a dark cape with the pulled deep into his face. Blood was splattered all over the cape, people in suits scattered all ove the building. All of them clung to silver suitcases, some even had had the chance to activate their quinque. He walked up to a terrified brown-haired boy that was cowering under a table. "Come on out, I won't hurt you!" he said, the usually chipper voice ice cold and emotionless. Alas, the boy whimpered and covered his face. "Come. On. Out." Juuzou said again and grabbed the boy's ankle with one of his red threads, pulling him out. "Code to the elevator, now." He said and smiled maniacally. He only let this side of him show in battle or on a mission.

"I don't know"

"No need to play the hero here. Everyone you knew in this building is dead. Now, what is the fucking code, pray tell?"

"I honestly don't know, please, let me go, please!"

"What do they teach you kids in the Academy these years? When I was there, I was always told "Rei, your life is more important than your pride." I always called bullshit on that, but didn't anyone tell you?"

"3-1-4-1-5-9" the boy cried and shook. Suzuya threw him on a table.

"Stay like that. Mama'll be right back!" He smiled and his eyes clouded like he was in a memory.

"Mama?" Suzuya didn't hear the boy, he was not important.

"Was I a good boy? How many points do I get? Was I a good boy today?" he sung and went off to grab a dead investigator's sledge-hammer quinque.

The boy tried to squirm away but Juuzou had fixated him on the table with the red threads. The white-haired boy jumped up on the tabletop and cracked his neck. He took out his thread and sew the boy's mouth shut in a matter of seconds. The youth tried to scream but he couldn't anymore. His eyes widened as Juuzou held the hammer up high and let it smash down between the boy's mouth. Not a sound could escape the boy's mouth, but his eyes almost bulged out. Suzuya released the threads and formed a string around the boy's neck, gibbeting him in the middle of the hallway, with the pants completely covered in blood and the eyes ripped out. Then he laid the quinque on the table, plunged his fingers in a pool of blood and wrote "REI" on the tabletop. He walked to the elevator and punched in the combination.

3-1-4-1-5-9

He was tricked. And he realized it as soon as the alarms went off, cursed and bolted towards the panorama on the left side of the aisle and smashed it with the hammer quinque he'd picked up. He stood on the ledge to a fall of over 30 meters and jumped. He jumped and swung upwards on the red thread he'd slung across a flagpole a few floors above him. Then he smashed against a window. He smashed a knife into the glass and held onto it with all his might. He heard the sirens of the police next to him and the flap-flap-flap of the helicopters surrounding the building. He groaned and pulled himself up till his chin was above the knife's hilt. Then, holding on with one hand, he smashed another knife in, just next to the first. There he hung, back to the window pane and hands above his head. "How the fuck could this happen, fuck, fuck, fuck!" he yelled. Then he slung a red thread around the two knives and prayed they would hold his bodyweight as he made a sling across his belly and under his arms. He let go of the knives' hilts.

And he fell. He heard the air rushing past his ears. And he knew the knives didn't stay in the wall. He fell, and fell and fell. He closed his eyes and laughed as the wind brought tears to his eyes. "Sorry Mama" he yelled as he smashed into the asphalt. His whole body was instantly cracked to bits. He didn't have the time to hear the panicked screams of the police officers nearby. He couldn't see the white van driving up to the scene.

He never saw Dr Kanou's warm, gentle brown eyes as he was picked up and brought to the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I.  
> Am.  
> So.  
> Sorry.  
> I know y'all love Suzuya more than you would love your own child, but trust me - it's for the better of the plot.
> 
> Extreme foreshadowing. Sorry. 
> 
> By the way:  
> dans le monde entier = in the whole word  
> mon avis = my opinion  
> I hate Tsukiyama


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suzuya is -surprise- not dead. But maybe he should've died when he fell, maybe it would've been better for him. But this is a Tokyo Ghoul Fanfic did you seriously expect anything good to happen to characters you like?
> 
> Also, you may not have realized this, but for Hide (but not people he carries) time moves more slowly when running, so he can control it better. And this is important, because this means he breathes in his normal tempo, but for anyone else watching it would look like he was hyperventilating at nearly the speed of light. His body can't take this for too long, so his absolute maximum of running is 3 seconds. That would be enough to run to the moon and back. But when he runs through walls, rather disintegrates them, it feels like he's walking through a normal wall at normal speed -> try breathing when you're stuck in a wall for multiple seconds. Yeah. That's gonna be important later on.

"I can't fucking find him!" Touka was pissed off. Everyone of the Top Four has been searching for Suzuya for three days now and the only thing they found was a completely devastated Iron Knights ward branch office with a death count over a hundred people and a few people had reported they'd seen a white-haired boy fall down the building before being taken away in a big white van. But that was all - nobody knew if Suzuya had survived the fall (he had left a pretty big dent in the floor though) or who the hell took him, not even the police officers knew anything and they still couldn't hack the Iron Knights' computer database. Touka doubted Suzuya was in there anyway, abducting and silently killing him wouldn't be their style, a grand execution in an open space would suit them better.

"Please stop screaming in the mic, Touka, we can hear you good and clear even when you're whispering." Yomo sat in the HQ's control room and went over battle plans they now had to do completely anew, considering Suzuya was most probably KIA.

"I think I might have found something on the floor before the building, but I can't really see it, can't raise suspicion." Hide said.

"What is it? Anything that could help us?"

"Tire tracks, they're faint but with the right angle I could try and make a photo of them. But I think Chie is way more suited for that, can you send her over?"

"Miss Hori has absolutely no fighting experience or ability whatsoever though. If any of you three out there could come pick her up and guard her, I could send her out."

"I'm on a fucking skyscraper looking for any suspicious van and I really can't leave now. Also, Kaneki needs to guard my back while I concentrate on the vision."

"I can go and pick her up, but then I would have to leave my post, sorry Yomo" Hide resentfully said.

"I'll go with her. While I am away, Tsukiyama will take control of the HQ and our operations," Yomo sighed.

"Don't fucking fuck it up, Tsukiyama, hear me?"

"Bien sûr, little Touka."

"There's another thing I need to tell you. If Suzuya isn't brought back to us or if we don't get any confirmation of his survival, I'll upgrade Juuzou Suzuya's status from MIA to KIA. That is all," Yomo disconnected without another word.

Nobody was able to say anything for the longest time before they heard a beep and Chie's chipper voice came through the static,

"I was told y'all need a photographer? Mister Yomo and me are on our way!"

"Thanks. I think police are getting suspicious of me sitting here, watching them. Wait, two are walking up to me," Hide's voice had lowered to a whisper, but still clearly audible.

"We have noticed you sitting here alone, watching us." They heard an old man's voice through Hide's radio.

"Yes, I am waiting for my uncle here. He said his work should be over in half an hour, so..."

"And what are you doing out after closing hour? Your uncle should know it's dangerous out here at this time. We have no chance but to look into your file. Would you please give me your ID card?"

"Sure, wait a moment, I should have it in my bag." A rustling sound, "Ah yeah, here it is."

And then a little clang of metal was heard. Voice shouting and Hide groaning.

"Hide, what is going on over there?"

"They found the gun, I request back-aah fuck!"

"Nobody leave their posts, Miss Hori and I will be there in ten minutes, no need to worry."

"I'm sorry, I won't wait," Kaneki disconnected and started running towards the ledge of the building he and Touka were on. He constructed his shield while he was still running and flew on it towards Hide's location. While he still flew he could hear the police sirens from over at the office building. He had his blood gun flying next to him and his actual gun in his hands when he lowered to ground level behind the building. He had landed for only a few seconds when the first sniper bullet whizzed past his left ear and he raised the shield. Another bullet bounced off it. Three snipers were now opening fire on him, attracting the ten officers that were surrounding Hide. Then the first of the ten raised his gun at Kaneki and fired a three-shot salve. Kaneki jumped behind the corner and fired his blood gun at the officer.

He heard a groan and a series of shots and commands. Then he felt someone appear next to him. He smiled when Hide picked him up, ran through the glass-pane wall and up the inside of the building. They disintegrated another five stories when Hide stopped and pulled him to the side. The commands were more silent up here.

And then Kaneki saw the red spot on Hide's forehead. He yelled and jumped in front of Hide when the glass pane behind him broke and the bullet hit him right in the back. He immediately lost consciousness and fell to his knees. Hide wasted no time and picked the limp body up on his shoulders, running straight to an elevator shaft. He easily ran through the closed doors and fell down. He'd pulled this trick off before a few times, but always only after ensuring there would be no elevator above him.

Then he ran up the wall inside the shaft, going so fast he left imprints on the solid metal. He knew the air would get thin soon because of the heat he was making. When he made it up ten more stories, he couldn't breathe anymore. His field of vision blurred, then he reached the top story and ran though the doors. When he landed on the floor, he was breathing hardly, almost losing consciousness. Kaneki's eyes fluttered open and he turned to Hide.

"I love you, Ken" Hide said and fell unconscious.

"I love you too, and I'm gonna get us out of here." He saw another red spot on his chest and took off running, lifting Hide up. His demon form had already healed the gunshot wound. He heard heavy army boots on the stairs. He saw the sun slowly setting. He spoke into Hide's mic - his was still shut off.

"We're inside the building. Hide's unconscious!"

"Touka will arrive at your location in a few minutes. Miss Hori and I are currently undetected, she is taking photos of everything that's happening. I'm trying to disable the snipers from here, but inside the building, you're on your own. Meet up with Touka on the roof, go up in exactly 30 seconds."

Kaneki walked to the door the stairs with the boots were leading and reconstructed his gun. He sent it flying downwards, meeting the soldiers and police and started shooting them. He was on death count three when he felt the weapon disappear. He was stunned for a moment and then whizzed out his handgun.

"The soldiers have Iron Knights' guns! They're effective against us!"

"Shit. I am taking aim on one of the snipers, but the wind is too strong. I think I can get rid of him in the next minute, but you and Touka will be completely helpless on that roof. Try avoiding the bullets at all costs!"

Kaneki opened the door and ran out on the roof the second Touka landed on it. She rolled over and took on her fighting stance. The one way door to the roof had shut the moment Kaneki was through it. Hide was laying unconscious to the side. Kaneki looked at Touka and she nodded, grabbed Hide under the armpits and jumped off the roof, extending her wing and sailing over to the other building, a little smaller. Kaneki saw the red dot on her, but she was too fast to get hit. They landed very ungraciously and she waved at him. He shook his head and turned around. On his body were three red dots.

And then began the hardest game of dodgeball Kaneki's ever played. He noticed the snipers had eight-shot magazines, and the last shot was always a little different, in the way it exploded upon contact. That did not help to make his dodging any easier. Then he saw one of the red dots disappear.

"One down" Yomo said calmly. Kaneki saw the door to the roof open. Thirty or so soldiers stood there and took aim at him. He ran like crazy and jumped off the side of the building, feeling the blood loss sway him as he constructed the shield to fly him over to the second sniper's location. He felt shots on his body everywhere and screamed. He knew he wouldn't survive a second in the open fire of the soldiers on the roof. And while he flew, he counted the snipers' hits and misses. When the eighth shot came, he felt the explosion's shrapnel hitting him and especially his shield. The shield disappeared and he fell. He was only half a meter from his location and could see the grin on the sniper's face when he fell past him. Then he grabbed a ledge he was falling past, feeling every joint in his arm dislocate and his legs swinging towards the wall. And then the wall gave in and both his legs broke.

He screamed in pain when he landed on the floor. Both his legs broken multiple times it would take at least two minutes to heal them. But at least the snipers couldn't shoot him anymore - snipers never took positions where they could harm one another and so he was safe. A little blue blinking light caught his attention. The light went on and he saw the cables running along the walls of the conference room he'd landed in. And he saw the C4 connected to the light, that was now emitting a steady red light. A trap. He'd fallen right into a trap.

"The whole room is a giant bomb!" He yelled into his microphone.

Yomo sucked in air sharply. "They are planning to blow up the entire building? But one of their men is in there, right? The sniper?"

"I don't think they care. I have no chance to get out of this room, I am lying on a table with two broken legs."

"Don't give up idiot, you gotta find a way to disarm the bombs!"

A cracking sound was heard in the connection, announcing a new participant. When she spoke, Kaneki and everyone else froze up.

"Hello my dears. It seems playing war is fun, right? But all that's fun must come to an end, so, I'm going to kill everyone in a five mile diameter of this building you're in, dear Kaneki. I had really wished you would find the righteous side to fight with, but this is the end."

"Eto! Stop the bomb at once!"

"Nope, no will do. But I will give y'all another ten seconds to live!"

"You monster! You can't just kill everyone!"

"Oh yes I can. Watch me as I do - or don't watch me, because you'll be dead. 3, 2, 1"

Nothing happened. Everyone could only hear the manic laughter resounding through their skulls when Eto counted down.

"Ahhahaha, Tension Boogie Woggie, ahaha! No, but for real, that was hilarious! The looks on your faces! Hahahaha"

The sound of a participant leaving the conversation startled everyone.

"The looks on our faces? She's that near?!" Touka yelled.

Kaneki's headphone suddenly snapped in two, a hand on his neck, the other holding the broken device.

"Now we can talk, right? Without anyone interfering!" A male voice spoke behind him. Furuta.

Eto and Arima came walking through the door. The thing with the clock was walking right behind them.

"And now we're all here, there's no need to be shy about anything anymore - we know about your plan with that third deity-thingy-whatever. And lemme tell you something, they ain't tellin' you the whole story." Furuta said and took his hands off Kaneki's neck. His left leg was completely healed by now, but the third was in a weird angle that made the bones grow back together crookedly.

"But that's what we're here for. To tell you everything. It all started when Yamori and Doc Kanou took you under their care. Back then, you know, two years ago, we had an open spot within our ranks. Originally, there were five Reapers, five Archangels. But then Tatara decided to go and fight Houji. And so both of us lost one, we phoned the Doc, told him to make someone strong enough to become a Reaper. He was kinda awkward, so we asked him what was wrong, and he said "Oh well, y'all are too fuckin' weak, I gotta snatch myself a human and make that strong, so yeah, sorry" and after a few months of training, you were created. You, the perfect demon, with an extra power and all the mojo with your eyes, cool, right? And yeah, after we had you, we wanted to come get you, but someone was faster - an Archangel. He came down, destroyed our lab, pulled you out and tried to make you THEIR missing fighter. You remember the nice old man helping you out the building? Yeah, he was an Archangel - the Manager, Yoshimura. And do you know what happened after you got out?"

Kaneki shook his head. After the nice old man had carried him out of the door of the lab, he didn't know anything until he woke up from a coma six weeks later.

"Eto, please speed up, we don't have much time until his friends will be here." Arima said.

"Sure, sure, okay. What happened is we found out about him trying to abduct you, so we waited for him right outside the door. Archangels are terribly strong creatures, but four Reapers vs one of them, no chance. We told him to drop you, he did, flew away. We decided to take you with us again, but you were dead. We don't know how you died, but my guess is there was some sort of mojo going on with the lab that kept you alive no matter how hard Yamori trained you. And after he'd carried you out, you died. Shucks. So we though, "well it would suck if we lost you" and brought you into a hospital. And there you'd wake up six weeks later. None of us were available at the time, so you got out of there, and eventually completely out of our reach. Big big shucks. But we found you when you enlisted at your school and decided to make you into one of us. That's why you were at our meeting."

Kaneki nodded. Now it all made sense. Now it was clear and he asked himself how he couldn't've seen it earlier, the tattoo, the meeting, everything lined up to it. But why hadn't they made him a Reaper? He shuddered.

"We didn't make you a Reaper because, honestly, you were not exactly ice-cold killer material. Sorry. We would've had to cut out your personality, memories and bonds, but frankly, time was short and we kind of gave up on you, searching for a new human to make a Reaper. And we found one. You know him, sorry."

Eto went back two steps and the door opened. A white-haired boy jumped in the room and beamed up to Kaneki from below. "Don't you remember me, Kaneki? Don't you wanna see the fifteen different ways I have in my head to kill you? Oh boy, it would be so fun!" Juuzou laughed and hugged Kaneki. "But I am not allowed to, can you believe it?"

Kaneki jumped up from the table and charged for the door. His bad leg gave in and he fell, flat on his face. He heard Furuta, Eto and Juuzou laugh. Arima went and opened the door for him, pushing him outside like a disobedient dog.

Only minutes later, the Reapers were long gone, Touka and the others had made their way up to his location. Kaneki was lying terrified of everything and everyone in the corner of the staircase and stared blankly at the ceiling. Hide rushed over to him to hug him and Kaneki jumped out of his apathy and backed away from his boyfriend. Hide's heart shattered and he took a step backwards. Kaneki jumped forward to hug Hide, sobbing and crying. Touka shushed Yomo who'd just wanted to speak up to ask something stupid and took Chie's camera away, looking at her chidingly.

It took hours for Kaneki to open up. But when he did, in the HQ's conference room, he held Hide's hand firmly under the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A longer chapter - and for the next, like, four weeks: none! I'm on vacation for that time, so, sorry, but y'know.
> 
> Another thing: I've seen fanfic on here with like 20k words and 384964916 bazillion comments. How the fuck?! If anyone knows, pray tell!

**Author's Note:**

> (*) during the first 20-minute-break, they were in the gym with Uta.  
> (**)A/N: You'll learn about that story in a few chapters, no worries.  
> (***) and if you chuckled now, you are definitely not Mature Audience yet. Or a sexually frustrated college student.


End file.
